Neoparamoeba perurans

• Main Author: Nowak, BF
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: CABI 2012
• Subjects: Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences; Fisheries Sciences; Aquaculture; Long Island; Long Island Sound; Morrison; Mullen; Nowak; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://www.cabi.org/bookshop/book/9781845938062; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/77811

Neoparamoeba perurans Young, Crosbie,Adams, Nowak et Morrison, 2007 is a marineamoeba (Arnebozoa, Dactylopodida) whichcolonizes fish gills resulting in outbreaks ofamoebic gill disease (AGD) in fish farmed inthe marine environment (Young et al ., 2007,2008a). The transmission is horizontal. ExperimentalAGD infections are achieved eitherby cohabitation with infected fish or by exposureto amoebae isolated from the gills of fishaffected by AGD. As few as 10 amoebae/1 ofwater cause AGD in native Atlantic salmon( Salmo salar ) (Morrison et al ., 2004). There is apositive correlation between the number ofamoebae in the water and the severity of thelesions (Zilberg et al ., 2001; Morrison et al .,2004). Other members of this genus are free-livingamoebae, ubiquitous in the marineenvironment (Page, 1974, 1983) and havebeen cultured from marine sediments, waterand marine invertebrates both from fish-farmingand non-farming areas, ranging frompolar to subtropical climate zones (Page,1973; Crosbie et al ., 2003, 2005; Mullen et al .,2005, Dykova et al ., 2007; Moran et al ., 2007).Massive mortality of American lobster ( Homarusamericanus ) in Western Long Island Sound,which resulted in the collapse of the fishery,was partly attributed to Neoparamoeba pemaquidensis ,which was identified on the basis ofsmall-subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA)fragments having 98% identity with N. pemaquidensis from the gills of Atlantic salmon(Mullen et al ., 2005). It was also proposed that Paramoeba invadens , which is a pathogen ofsea urchins (Jones and Scheibling, 1985), is ajunior synonym of N. pemaquidensis (seeMullen et al ., 2005)