Fractionation of parasite communities in relation to heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants
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| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Parasitism and level of contamination of gudgeon were studied at localities with different chemical pollution (Bílina, Vlára and Ponávka Rivers, Czech Republic). The relationship among developmental instability (measured as deviation from perfect bilateral symmetry of 10 meristic and 8 morphometric fish traits), parasitism, concentration of selected pollutants in muscle and hepatopancreas of fish (mercury, nickel, PCBs, p,p-DDE etc.) and hepatopancreatic 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase (EROD) activity, a biomarker of exposure of fish to dioxins and dioxin-like toxicants, were analysed. Detected level of PCB, p,p-DDE and some heavy metals (e.g. Ni, Zn, Hg) and EROD activity in muscle and hepatopancreas of gudgeon differed among fish from different localities. However, there was no significant difference in the developmental instability of fish among studied sampling sites. With the exception of one fish, all examined gudgeon were infected with metazoan parasites. Parasites of taxa Monogenea, Trematoda, Cestoda and Acanthocephala were recorded and the differences in parasite community composition among localities were found. Ectoparasites were the most abundant at all localities whereas endoparasites were found with low mean abundance. The parasite community was fractionated into biologically meaningful components (generalists and specialists) and analysed in relation to concentration of pollutants and biological stress markers. A link between the EROD activity in gudgeon tissue and presence of either specialist or generalist parasites was found at all sampling sites. Fish with a high exposure to dioxin-like toxicants were parasitized mainly with generalists; however specialists were mainly found on fish with lower exposure to dioxin-like compounds. Finally, there was no relationship between concentration of pollutants and developmental instability of gudgeon at any of the examined sampling sites. |
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