CONSPICUOUS BEHAVIOUR OF NATURALLY APATEMON-INFECTED KILLIFISH NOTHOBRANCHIUS FURZERI – A CASE OF PARASITE MANIPULATION?
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| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Parasites with complex life cycles may affect their hosts in many ways to increase the probability of transmission to the next host. In this study, we investigated the behaviour of killifish Nothobranchius furzeri naturally infected by larval trematodes Apatemon sp. from Mosambique. Apatemon (Trematoda) is a parasite with complex life cycle that requires the ingestion of the second intermediate host (fish) by the definitive host (piscivorous birds) to complete its life cycle. In the fish host, metacercariae are located in body cavities. In killifish, metacercariae occur in exclusively in cerebral cavity which may indicate possible effects on host behaviour. We performed two series of experimental observation to compare behaviour of Apatemon-infected and control killifish: 1) location of the fish in the aquarium without interruption and 2) behavioural responses of killifish to simulated avian predation. Apatemon-infected killifish often remained at the water surface in both series of observation. In the case of simulated attack, the fish displayed conspicuous swimming behaviour manifested by multiple jumps above the water surface, uncoordinated movements and rotation in all directions at the time of the attack and shortly after it. On the contrary Apatemon-uninfected control killifish were located close to the water surface only rarely and, in the observation without interruption, most of the time spent in the lower two-thirds of the aquarium. When simulated the avian attack, the control fish showed an escape response away from the site of the attack into the deeper water or to the walls of the aquarium. Conspicuous behaviour of infected killifish which was even more intense in the case of disturbance may potentially serve as a mechanism to increase the probability of predation by the definitive bird host and thus represent the parasite manipulation. However, this host-parasite system requires a more detailed study to a better understanding of the mechanisms of these host-parasite interactions. |
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