According to research led by Bournemouth University (BU) and published in the International Journal of Parasitology, a deadly parasite has invaded the UK’s Atlantic waters. Lead author of the paper Dr Rodolphe Gozlan opined that the disease is a rosette agent or parasite first identified in the UK in 2005. It is said that the agent – Sphaerothecum destruens – was originally found in the US and is closely associated with ‘invasive’ fish species including topmouth gudgeon and could prove deadly to native salmonids (Atlantic salmon, brown trout).
Dr Gozlan and his colleagues have traced the first record of the new infective parasite rosette agent outside North America. Dr Gozlan initially found that the parasite poses a severe threat to some freshwater fish species in Europe. In the current study it is found that they have serious implications in understanding the potential risk posed by the association in the UK of this disease, the rosette agent, with invasive fish species.
Dr Gozlan, an Associate Professor in Conservation Ecology within BU’s School of Conservation Sciences, believes that unlike in the US, the occurrence of this agent in invasive fish presents a major risk of spread from wild invasive populations to sympatric populations of susceptible native fish. He said that the new parasite has also been shown to affect other UK freshwater fish such as bream, carp and roach so there is an urgent need to take stern measures to avoid further destructions.
