Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Biodiversity

Disease threat to European fish

Abstract

The deliberate introduction of new species can have unexpected negative consequences1,2 and we show here how a recently introduced fish, the invasive Asian cyprinid Pseudorasbora parva, is causing increased mortality and totally inhibiting spawning in an already endangered native fish, the European cyprinid Leucaspius delineatus. This threat is caused by an infectious pathogen, a rosette-like intracellular eukaryotic parasite that is a deadly, non-specific agent. It is probably carried by healthy Asian fish, and could decrease fish biodiversity in Europe, as well as having implications for commercial aquaculture.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Decline of Leucaspius delineatus population in a large natural pond after the introduction of Pseudorasbora parva and its associated pathogen, Sphaerothecum destruens.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lodge, D. M. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8, 133–137 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Van der Zanden, J. M., Casselman, J. M. & Rasmussen, J. B. Nature 401, 464–467 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Lelek, A. The Freshwater Fishes of Europe: Threatened Fishes of Europe (AULA, Wiesbaden, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gozlan, R. E., Pinder, A. C. & Shelley, J. J. Fish Biol. 61, 298–300 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Giurca, R. & Angelescu, N. Romaniei. Bul. Cerc. Pisc. 30, 99–109 (1971).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Wolfram-Wais, A., Wolfram, G., Auer, B., Mikschi, E. & Hain, A. Hydrobiologia 409, 123–129 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Arkush, K. D., Mendoza, L., Adkinson, M. A. & Hedrick, R. P. J. Eukaryot. Microbiol. 50, 430–438 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Mendonca, H. L. & Arkush, K. D. Dis. Aquat. Org. 61, 187–197 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. St-Hilaire, S., Ribble, C., Traxler, G., Davies, T. & Kent, M. L. Dis. Aquat. Org. 46, 173–179 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gilad, O. et al. Dis. Aquat. Org. 48, 101–108 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rodolphe E. Gozlan.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information

Summary of methods used for the rosette-like agent characterization. (DOC 41 kb)

Supplementary Figure S1

Experimental set-up for the cohabitation studies. (DOC 253 kb)

Supplementary Figure S2

Multifocal granulomatous lesions in the ovary of L. delineatus. (DOC 2624 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gozlan, R., St-Hilaire, S., Feist, S. et al. Disease threat to European fish. Nature 435, 1046 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/4351046a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4351046a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing