Hi Fish Ecologers,
I am posting this message for a friend. Please reply to Matthew Grober [log in to unmask]
Thanks
Joe Ackerman -------------------------------------------------- | Dr. Josef Daniel Ackerman | | Assistant Professor | | Environmental Studies Programme | | University of Northern British Columbia | | Prince George, BC, CANADA V2N 4Z9 | | | | Tel: (250) 960-5839 Fax: (250) 960-5539 | | email: [log in to unmask] | | WWW: http://quarles.unbc.edu/nres/jda.htm | --------------------------------------------------
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 10:29:15 -0700 From: Matthew S. Grober <[log in to unmask]> To: Josef Ackerman <[log in to unmask]> Subject: help
Hey amigo: I'm having trouble posting to the Fish-Ecol. list. Would you post the following message and ask that folks reply directly to me? Many thanks!
XXOO - Matthew
Recently our research group discovered a remarkable parasitic infection and I wanted to query this list to see if anyone has heard of it. We have been studying sexual plasticity in the Atlantic/Mediterranean blenny Salaria pavo. Part of this work involves opening the skull of fixed fish and removing the brain. Early on in this project we noticed that the brain case (external to the meninges) was full of 'balls'. I figured they were fat (this is not uncommon in fish) and thought nothing more of it. This year we were doing enzyme assays on the fish and this required removing the brain from recently euthanized fish. We found that this 'brain balls' were actually parasites and we obeserved them alive for quite some time! The closest thing I could find in a book was a myxozoan (this was based on the presence of both 'living' parasites and spores in the cranium). I am confident that it is not Myxozoa cerebrus (common in carp), since this vector is almost always detrimental to the host and it does not appear that the parasite in these blennies has a significant effect on health. What is most remarkable is that the skull is FULL of these beasts and they are present in the vast majority of fish that we open up. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely - M. Grober
******************************************************************* Matthew S. Grober Assistant Professor of Physiology Department of Life Sciences Arizona State University West Phone: (602) 543-6939 4701 W. Thunderbird Rd. FAX: (602) 543-6073 Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100 E-mail:[log in to unmask]
http://lsvl.la.asu.edu/zoology/faculty/grober.html
"No human being was ever so free as a fish." John Ruskin *******************************************************************
******************************************************************* Matthew S. Grober Assistant Professor of Physiology Department of Life Sciences Arizona State University West Phone: (602) 543-6939 4701 W. Thunderbird Rd. FAX: (602) 543-6073 Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100 E-mail:[log in to unmask]
http://lsvl.la.asu.edu/zoology/faculty/grober.html
"No human being was ever so free as a fish." John Ruskin *******************************************************************
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