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Mortality And Pathophysiology Studies Of Blue Crabs Infected With The Parasitic Dinoflagellate Hematodinium Perezi, Jeffrey D. Shields

Reports

On the eastern seaboard of the USA, populations of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, experience recurring epizootics of a parasitic dinoflagellate. The parasite, H ematodinium perezi, fulminates in the summer and autumn causing mortalities in high salinity embayments and estuaries. In laboratory studies, we experimentally investigated host mortality due to the disease, assessed differential hematological changes in infected crabs, and examined proliferation of the parasite. Mature, overwintering, non-ovigerous, female crabs were injected with 103 or 105 cells of H. perezi. Mortalities began 14 dafter infection, with a median time to death of30.3 ± 1.5 d (se). Subsequent mortality rates were …