Inter-Research
Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

ABSTRACT: From June 2001 to March 2002, 7 semi-offshore facilities in the Adriatic Sea rearing sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax, sea bream Sparus aurata, sharpsnout bream Diplodus puntazzo and red sea bream Pagellus bogaraveo aged 1+, were monitored for the presence of protozoan and metazoan parasites. Obtained data sets of abundance and prevalence were used to evaluate the structure and dynamic of infra- and component parasite communities. In all hosts, except the red sea bream, dominant parasites were monogenean specialists, showing clear seasonality. Average infracommunity richness was very low, ranging from 1 to 3 parasites per fish, while at component community level, values ranged from 3 to 8, depending on host species. Based on low diversity indices and a moderate to high similarity coefficient between different facilities, it can be concluded that the parasitofauna of Adriatic cage-reared fish is a stable and impoverished stochastic assemblage, with monogeneans as the predominant parasitic group.

KEY WORDS: Adriatic Sea · Cage-reared fish · Infracommunity · Component community

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Published in DAO Vol. 64, No. 1 (2005) on April 6
Print ISSN: 0177-5103; Online ISSN: 1616-1580. Copyright © Inter-Research, Oldendorf/Luhe, 2005