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RECORD NUMBER: 1 OF 753

Main Title 'Proctoeces' sp. (Trematoda: Digenea) in the American Oyster, 'Crassostrea virginica'.
Author Winstead, James T. ; Couch, John A. ;
CORP Author Environmental Research Lab., Gulf Breeze, FL.
Year Published 1981
Report Number EPA-600/J-81-042;
Stock Number PB82-205816
Additional Subjects Oysters ; Invertebrates ; Mississippi Sound ; Shellfish ; Estuaries ; Mollusca ; Morphology ; Worms ; Mussels ; Histology ; Trematoda ; Mexico Gulf ; Reprints ; Crassostrea virginica ; Proctoeces ; Brachidontes recurvus
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NTIS  PB82-205816 Some EPA libraries have a fiche copy filed under the call number shown. 07/26/2022
Collation 12p
Abstract
Histological examination of over 6,000 oysters, Crassostrea virginica, inhabiting northern Gulf Coast estuaries revealed unencysted junvenile and possible adult stages of digenetic trematode, Proctoeces sp., inhabiting the gonadal ducts of the mollusc. The morphology of the worm is similar to juvenile stages of Proctoeces described in other bivalves. Infestation is highest in oysters from Mississippi Sound near Pascagoula, Mississippi with prevalence peaking in early winter and dropping off in spring and summer. The worm did not provoke a significant hemocytic response from the oyster. Oyster hemocytes were observed inside the digestive caeca of worms but there was no evidence of significant germinal feeding of gonadal impairment to the oyster. The hooked mussel Brachidontes recurvus, found attached to shells of oysters, may be significant in the life cycle of the digenean. The possibility of an altered life cycle in which the worm uses a surrogate host such as C. virginica in place of a vertebrate (fish) is hypotesized.