Epitheliocystis in wild marine fishes and its relation with anthropogenic pollution

NOVACOVSKY, GABRIELA NAYLA; PALACIOS, MARÍA GABRIELA; SUEIRO, MARÍA CRUZ

JOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2021 p. 1 - 5

0022-1112

Epitheliocystis is a fish disease with increasing number of records globally. Here we show that 1) pollution-exposed wild marine fishes have higher infection prevalence than non-exposed individuals from reference sites, suggesting that anthropogenic pollution predisposes individuals to this disease in natural systems, 2) the effect of pollution on infection status did not vary significantly between two sympatric fish species, and 3) infected and non-infected individuals from both species did not differ significantly in selected immune and general-health parameters; a result that deserves further study with increased sample sizes.