Life Sciences Commons^™

Sensitivity Of A Lamp Assay For Detection Of The Dinoflagellate Amyloodinium Ocellatum In Simulated Field Conditions And Freeze Tolerance Of The Parasite, Robert Gonzales

Master's Theses

The obligate parasitic dinoflagellate Amyloodinium ocellatum causes amyloodiniosis in warm water marine fishes. The prolific parasite, which has a direct, three-stage life cycle, is highly infectious and can cause heavy losses in aquaculture. Prevention, biosecurity, and early detection are vital for control. In this work, microscopy and a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay were compared for early diagnosis of A. ocellatum in cultured stocks, and the freeze tolerance of tomonts was assessed to determine if frozen wild fish used as fish food can serve as a potential vector for the parasite.

The lowest dinospore concentration that could be detected by …

Effects Of Infection Of The Protist Parasite, Dermomycoides Sp., In Dusky Gopher Frog Tadpoles, Jaime Smith

Master's Theses

Infections of the protist parasite, Dermomycoides sp. are thought to have caused several years of low recruitment in the dusky gopher frog (Rana sevosa) populations. I evaluated the effects of density of the infective zoospores, host developmental stage, and tadpoles' ability to acquire resistance to Dermomycoides sp. on dusky gopher frog tadpoles. Tadpoles were exposed to zoospore densities of 0, 250, 500, and 750 zoospores/µL at Gosner stage 25, and we found no significant differences among treatments in tadpole mortality. In evaluating susceptibility by development stage, I exposed R. sevosa to 50 zoospores/µL as eggs, embryos, hatchlings, and …