Marine Fish Haematozoa from New Brunswick and New England

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Authors: Laird, Marshall, Bullock, Wilbur L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1969
• Subjects: Canada; Kent Island; Gadus morhua
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f69-100; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f69-100

Of 1142 fish (68 species) examined, 140 (21 species) yielded blood parasites. Overall incidence was much higher at St. Andrews, N.B., than at Woods Hole, Mass., as was the variety of fish harbouring haematozoa — 15 species (46.9%) in the former case, but only 4 (9.3%) in the latter.Trypanosoma rajae Laveran and Mesnil and Cryptobia bullocki Strout are new records for Canada, Haemogregarina delagei Laveran and Mesnil has not previously been reported from the western side of the Atlantic, and the present finding of an undesignated species of Haemohormidium Henry (a babesioid genus with which Babesiosoma Jakowska and Nigrelli is now synonymized) is the first from North American marine fish. New hosts and localities are listed for Haemogregarina bigemina Laveran and Mesnil, H. platessae Lebailly, H. aeglefini Henry, H. myoxocephali Fantham et al., and certain unidentified haemogregarines. Haemogregarina urophysis Fantham et al. is relegated to synonymy with H. aeglefini; and H. gadi pollachii Henry and H. pollachii Henry are discarded as nomina nuda. Myxosporidians of the genus Kudoa are reported (presumably as contaminants derived from slit muscle) in blood films from six hosts.Haemogregarina mavori n.sp., from Passamaquoddy Bay Macrozoarces americanus, averages 6.4 × 2.9 μ. Broadly oval to reniform and with a large, subterminal nucleus, it is found in erythrocytes that are shorter and broader than normal and exhibit marked nuclear displacement.Piscine erythrocytic necrosis (PEN) is a degenerative infection responsible for massive red blood cell destruction in Gadus morhua (Passamaquoddy Bay) and also found in Liparis atlanticus (Kent Island, N.B.) and Myoxocephalus octodecemspinosus (Portsmouth Harbor, N.H.). A distinctive inclusion body formed in the cytoplasm of infected red cells recalls similar bodies associated with Pirhemocyton Chatton and Blanc and Toddia França. Erythrocyte nuclei disintegrate with the liberation of viruslike particles formed in vesicles within them.