Invasive parasites and global change: Evidence for the recent and rapid spillover of a potential pathogen of tilapias with a complex, three-host life cycle

ABSTRACT: Biological invasions pose a serious threat to local flora and fauna and have negative impacts on ecosystems. Invasive parasites can also cause severe losses in aquaculture. In this article, we provide evidence of the recent spillover of an African parasite with a complex, three-host life cycle that has rapidly and successfully established itself in the Middle East, most likely due to the recent migration of its final hosts (great cormorant) from Africa. This case of parasite introduction into a country with intensive aquaculture is also important from an economic point of view, since large (up to 2 cm long) larvae of this parasite, the cyclophyllidean tapeworm Amirthalingamia macracantha (Cestoda) localised in the liver, can be pathogenic to their fish hosts, including farmed and wild fish

SUBMITTER: Davidovich N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10477445 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature