Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #241038
Title: Trematode infections in farm-raised fish: Reasons for massive infections, impacts on fish and fish farms, and management of infections on fish farms

Author
item Mitchell, Andrew

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/12/2009
Publication Date: 7/10/2009
Citation: Mitchell, A.J. 2009. Trematode infections in farm-raised fish: Reasons for massive infections, impacts on fish and fish farms, and management of infections on fish farms [abstract]. 3rd U.S.-Russian Bilateral Conference, July 12-20, 2009, Shepherdstown, West Virginia. p.50.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There is an increasing problem with trematodes in fish production facilities. The onset and growth of pond aquaculture in the US (1950-1990) resulted in concentrated areas of fish, new sites for snail growth and multiplication, and new bird feeding habitat. Snails, fish, and birds serve as hosts for several problem trematodes that cause problems. The loss of natural wetlands due to human encroachments further concentrated these hosts. The resurgence of aquatic bird populations associated with the discontinued use of many pesticides and the importation of exotic aquatic snails and exotic trematodes made the potential for trematode problems even greater. Only time was needed for a build-up of trematode numbers. By the late 1970s, trematode problems in aquaculture began to appear and by the mid-1990s they had, in some cases, reached epizootic proportions. Massive infections of some trematodes, including the catfish trematode, Bolbophorus damnificus and the gill trematode, Centrocestus formosanus, were occurring at aquaculture facilities and were responsible for multi-million dollar (US) annual losses. Measures to control trematodes in fish are not plausible and aquatic birds are protected, therefore efforts to control the snail vectors have been emphasized. The black carp Mylopharyngodon piceus was found to be the most effective biological control tested but was highly controversial because of its potential to negatively impact the environment. The copper sulfate pond-shoreline treatment was the most effective snail control measure tested and is widely used by commercial fish producers.