Ligula intestinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) is a tapeworm parasite with a worldwide distribution that uses a wide variety of fish species as its second intermediate host. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence and population genetic structure of plerocercoids of L. intestinalis in five common cyprinoid species, roach Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus), freshwater bream Abramis brama (Linnaeus), white bream Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus), bleak Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus), and rudd Scardinius erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus), collected in six water bodies of the Czech Republic (Milada, Most, Medard, Jordán, Římov and Lipno). Of the six study sites, the highest frequency of parasitism was recorded in Lake Medard (15%). The overall prevalence rate among the species was as follows: roach > rudd ≥ freshwater bream > bleak > white bream. Two mitochondrial genes (cytb and COI) were used to compare the population genetic structure of parasite populations using selected samples from the five fish species. The results of the phylogenetic analysis indicated that all populations of L. intestinalis were placed in Clade A, previously identified as the most common in Europe. At a finer scale, haplotype network and PCoA analyses indicated the possible emergence of host specificity of several mtDNA haplotypes to the freshwater bream. Moreover, pairwise Fixation indices (FST) revealed a significant genetic structure between the parasite population in freshwater bream and other host species. Parasite populations in roach not only showed the highest rate of prevalence but also depicted a maximum number of shared haplotypes with populations from bleak and rudd. Our results suggest that recent ecological differentiation might have influenced tapeworm populations at a fine evolutionary scale. Thus, the differences in prevalence between fish host species in different lakes might be influenced not only by the parasite's ecology, but also by its genetic diversity.
This study investigated the post-spawning dispersal of seven species occurring in a tributary of the Římov Reservoir during
the years 2000-2004. Fish were captured during spawning migration to the tributary, marked and released. The subsequent distribution
of marked fish was followed in the reservoir and tributary during three successive periods 1) early summer, 2) late summer and 3)
the next spawning season. Species were divided into two groups – obligatory tributary spawners (white bream
Blicca bjoerkna
, chub
Squalius cephalus
, bleak
Alburnus alburnus
and asp
Aspius aspius
) that did so predominantly in the tributary of the reservoir and
generalists (bream
Abramis brama
, perch
Perca fluviatilis
and roach
Rutilus rutilus
) that usually spawned in the tributary as well as at
different sites within the reservoir main body. We hypothesized that obligatory tributary spawners would distribute across the reservoir
after spawning according to their species-specific preferences for certain feeding grounds. We expected a relatively low or erratic post-
spawning dispersal for spawning generalists. The results of the study revealed that the post-spawning dispersal of obligatory tributary
spawners is consistent with our hypothesis and they most likely dispersed according to their feeding ground requirements. The post-
spawning dispersal of generalists revealed that the assumed low dispersal was relevant for bream and perch while erratic dispersal was
observed in roach.