Mytilicola intestinalis, Steuer, in the European Flat Oyster (Ostrea edulis)

Abstract

WHILE examining a sample of ninety-six two- and three-year-old oysters taken from the Penryn River, Cornwall, on June 20 to assess the incidence of Dutch shell disease¹, Mytilicola intestinalis was found in three of the Oysters. As the main initial interest of the sample lay in the shells, the meats were being discarded without examination. About thirty oysters had been opened and the meats discarded when a slip of the knife resulted in the cutting of the visceral mass; Mytilicola was then observed. The remaining sixty-six oyster meats were examined as the oysters were opened; two were found to be infected, but small parasites may have been overlooked.