Research priorities for diseases of the blue crab Callinectes sapidus

• Main Author: Shields, Jeffrey D.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: W&M ScholarWorks 2003
• Subjects: Dinoflagellate Hematodinium-perezi; Red King Crab; Parasitic Dinoflagellate; Shell Disease; Aquatic Health Sciences Peer-Reviewed Articles; Aquaculture and Fisheries; Marine Biology; Red king crab
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsarticles/1514; https://scholarworks.wm.edu/context/vimsarticles/article/2519/viewcontent/Research_priorities_for_diseases.pdf

The diseases of blue crabs have received relatively little attention compared to those of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica, or the penaeid shrimps, Penaeus spp. This is primarily due to differences in resource management (fishery vs. aquaculture), and the magnitude of financial losses suffered by the industries from protozoal diseases in oysters and viral diseases in shrimp, respectively. Nonetheless, several agents including Vibrio spp., Hematodinium perezi, Paramoeba perniciosa, Ameson michaelis and Loxothylacus texanus are highly pathogenic in blue crabs, and have the capacity to severely damage certain segments of the crab population. This paper is meant to highlight priorities for critically needed research on the ecological impacts and pathological processes of these diseases in the crab host. It is not meant as a review of the literature. For more complete reviews of the parasites and diseases of blue crabs, see Johnson (1983), Couch (1983), Overstreet (1983), Messick and Sinderman (1992), Noga et al. (1998), Shields and Overstreet (in press).