Salmon louse
| Salmon louse | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Maxillopoda |
| Subclass: | Copepoda |
| Order: | Siphonostomatoida |
| Family: | Caligidae |
| Genus: | Lepeophtheirus |
| Species: | L. salmonis |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepeophtheirus salmonis Krøyer, 1837 |
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The salmon louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, is a species of copepod in the genus Lepeophtheirus. It is a sea louse, a parasite living on salmon. It lives off the mucus, skin and blood of the fish.[1]
There has been some research on the problems caused by this species in aquaculture, but little is known about the salmon louse's life in nature. It has been shown, however, that salmon louse infections in fish farming facilities can cause epizootics in wild fish.[2]
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[edit] Life cycle
The life cycle consists of 10 stages,[3] with ecdysis in between.
The first two stages are free swimming nauplius I and II, where it has a length between 0.54 and 0.85 mm.[4] The third stage is the copepodit stage, in which the length is ca. 0.7 mm, and the salmon louse attaches itself to the fish.
Stages IV to VII are the chalimus stages. The salmon louse eats from the fish, and grows to a length of 5 mm for the males, 10 mm for the females. Each generation takes about six weeks at a temperature of 10–12 °C (50–54 °F).
In the pre-adult and adult stages (stage VIII to X), the sea louse is now mobile, and it becomes possible to differentiate males and females.
The thorax is broad and shield shaped. The abdomen is narrower, and in the females, filled with eggs. The females also have two long egg strings attached to the abdomen. The salmon louse uses its feet to move around on the host or to swim from one host to another.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Christiane Eichner, Petter Frost, Bjarte Dysvik, Inge Jonassen, Bjørn Kristiansen & Frank Nilsen (2008). "Salmon louse (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) transcriptomes during post molting maturation and egg production, revealed using EST-sequencing and microarray analysis". BMC Genomics 9: 126. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-9-126. PMC 2329643. PMID 18331648. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/126.
- ^ Martin Krkošek, Jennifer S. Ford, Alexandra Morton, Subhash Lele, Ransom A. Myers & Mark A. Lewis (2007). "Declining wild salmon populations in relation to parasites from farm salmon" (PDF). Science 318 (5857): 1772–1775. doi:10.1126/science.1148744. PMID 18079401. http://www.focs.ca/fishfarming/Science_article_extinction.pdf.
- ^ "Lakselus: generell biologi" (in Norwegian). Havforskningsinstituttet. http://www.imr.no/temasider/parasitter/lus/lakselus/90682/nb-no. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ^ "Lepeophtheirus salmonis". Universität Würzburg. Archived from the original on June 27, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090627081212/http://parasitology.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/login/n/h/0758.html.
[edit] Further reading
- Sea Lice and Salmon: Elevating the dialogue on the farmed-wild salmon story Watershed Watch Salmon Society, 2004.
[edit] External links
- Ecological Genetics of Parasitic Sea Lice University of St Andrews Marine Ecology Research Group
- Fish farms drive wild salmon populations toward extinction Biology News Net — biologynews.net
- Wild Salmon in Trouble: The Link Between Farmed Salmon, Sea Lice and Wild Salmon Watershed Watch Salmon Society. Animated short video based on peer-reviewed scientific research, with subject background article Watching out for Wild Salmon.
- Aquacultural Revolution: The scientific case for changing salmon farming Watershed Watch Salmon Society. Short video documentary by filmmakers Damien Gillis and Stan Proboszcz. Prominent scientists and First Nation representatives speak their minds about the salmon farming industry and the effects of sea lice infestations on wild salmon populations.
- Sea Lice Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform. An overview of farmed- to wild-salmon interactive effects.
- Salmon Farming Problems Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform. An overview of environmental impacts of salmon farming.
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