Introduced Pathogens and Native Freshwater Biodiversity: A Case Study of Sphaerothecum destruens

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Authors: Andreou, Demetra, Arkush, Kristen, Guégan, Jean-François, Gozlan, Rodolphe
• Other Authors: Bournemouth University Poole (BU), School of Biosciences Cardiff, Cardiff University, Génétique et évolution des maladies infectieuses (GEMI), Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud ), This work was funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), contract FC1176. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: Kidneys; Biodiversity; Genetic predisposition; Gastrointestinal tract; Fish; Fish farming; Death rates; Parasitic diseases; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BA.MVSA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Veterinary medicine and animal Health; [SDV.MP.PAR]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/Parasitology; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02392908; https://hal.science/hal-02392908/document; https://hal.science/hal-02392908/file/Guegan_05.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036998

International audience A recent threat to European fish diversity was attributed to the association between an intracellular parasite, Sphaerothecum destruens, and a healthy freshwater fish carrier, the invasive Pseudorasbora parva originating from China. The pathogen was found to be responsible for the decline and local extinction of the European endangered cyprinid Leucaspius delineatus and high mortalities in stocks of Chinook and Atlantic salmon in the USA. Here, we show that the emerging S. destruens is also a threat to a wider range of freshwater fish than originally suspected such as bream, common carp, and roach. This is a true generalist as an analysis of susceptible hosts shows that S. destruens is not limited to a phylogenetically narrow host spectrum. This disease agent is a threat to fish biodiversity as it can amplify within multiple hosts and cause high mortalities.