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Morphological characterisation and identification of four species of Cardicola Short, 1953 (Trematoda: Aporocotylidae) infecting the Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (L.) in the Mediterranean Sea

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Abstract

Blood flukes of the genus Cardicola Short, 1953 are considered the most potentially pathogenic parasites in bluefin tuna cultures. Morphological study and genetic analyses of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer ITS-2 and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (cox1) gene fragments revealed the occurrence of four aporocotylid species (C. forsteri Cribb, Daintith & Munday, 2000, C. orientalis Ogawa, Tanaka, Sugihara & Takami, 2010, C. opisthorchis Ogawa, Ishimaru, Shirakashi, Takami & Grabner, 2011 and Cardicola sp.) in 421 Thunnus thynnus (L.) from the Western Mediterranean (274 fished from the wild and 147 from sea-cages). Cardicola opisthorchis was the most abundant species, with higher prevalence in the cage-reared fish than in those fished in the wild (21 vs 6%, p < 0.05). Adults of three species were recovered: C. forsteri from both gills and heart, C. opisthorchis from heart and C. orientalis from gills. The secondary gill lamellae were profusely infected by eggs of C. orientalis. A fourth species was found in four tunas, based on the molecular analyses of eggs apparently indistinguishable in size and shape from the eggs of C. orientalis. The findings provided evidence that infections with Cardicola spp. differed in relation to locality, host origin (wild vs cage-reared) and site of infection. It is necessary to estimate the possible different pathogenic effects of each species of Cardicola in order to take appropriate control measures.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to Grup Balfegó for their support and collaboration. We are grateful to P. Addis, J. Culurgioni (University of Cagliari), D. Macías and E. Rodríguez-Marín (Spanish Institute of Oceanography) for their support and collaboration during sampling. We also thank N. Fraija (University of Valencia) for her help in the laboratory analyses. Thanks are also due to F. Barraclough for revising the English. JP-A benefits from a “Atracció de talent” PhD student grant from the University of Valencia and JR-L benefits from a PhD fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (ESM).

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spanish Government (project AGL 2010-20892) and by the Valencian Local Government (projects PROMETEO 2015-018 and ISIC/2012/003).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Compliance with ethical standards

All applicable institutional, national and international guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Park, Marine Zoology Unit, Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, C/ Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980, Paterna, Spain

    José F. Palacios-Abella, Javier Rodríguez-Llanos & Francisco E. Montero

  2. Parassitologia e Malattie Parassitarie, Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Salvatore Mele

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  1. José F. Palacios-Abella
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  2. Javier Rodríguez-Llanos
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  3. Salvatore Mele
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  4. Francisco E. Montero
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Correspondence to José F. Palacios-Abella.

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Palacios-Abella, J.F., Rodríguez-Llanos, J., Mele, S. et al. Morphological characterisation and identification of four species of Cardicola Short, 1953 (Trematoda: Aporocotylidae) infecting the Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (L.) in the Mediterranean Sea. Syst Parasitol 91, 101–117 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-015-9568-x

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