A mycobacterial disease is associated with the silent mass mortality of the pen shell Pinna nobilis along the Tyrrhenian coastline of Italy.

ABSTRACT: Disease is an increasing threat for marine bivalves worldwide. Recently, a mass mortality event (MME) impacting the bivalve Pinna nobilis was detected across a wide geographical area of the Spanish Mediterranean Sea and linked to a haplosporidian parasite. In 2017-2018, mass mortality events affecting the pen shell Pinna nobilis were recorded in two different regions of Italy, Campania and Sicily, in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Mediterranean Sea). Histopathological and molecular examinations of specimens showed the presence of Haplosporidium sp. in only one specimen in one area. Conversely, in all of the surveyed moribund animals, strong inflammatory lesions at the level of connective tissue surrounding the digestive system and gonads and linked to the presence of intracellular Zhiel-Neelsen-posit

SUBMITTER: Carella F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6389904 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature