Invasive parasite destroying fish species

EU - Researchers have discovered that a parasite carried by an invasive species of minnow is responsible for the dramatic declines and localized extinctions of a different minnow species in Europe during the past 40 years.

This parasite, which scientists have found can almost totally destroy the spawning success of the small sunbleak minnow, Leucaspius delineatus, may pose threats to the diversity and stability of freshwater ecosystems, and is genetically very similar to a parasite that can be deadly to salmon, researchers say.

The findings were published today in the journal Nature by researchers from Oregon State University, the Winfrith Technology Centre in England, Idaho State University and the Weymouth Laboratory in England.

"This solves a mystery that fisheries researchers have been studying for decades, about why sunbleak minnows have been disappearing from Europe, where they were once quite common," said Michael Kent, a professor of microbiology and director of the Center for Salmon Disease Research at OSU.

Source: Innovations Report