Polychaetes as hosts of parasites

[Pat Hutchings]

Hi folks, I have had a request from a parasitologist from the Univeristy of 
Queensland -- see below - and I was unable to help him -- wondering if any 
of you out there have seen such infections    

Tom Cribb wrote--

"My interest is in trematodes of marine fishes.  Almost without exception 
trematodes use molluscs as first intermediate hosts; asexual stages 
(sporocysts, rediae & cercariae occur in the haemocoel).  The exception is 
the fish blood flukes (Sanguinicolidae) which may use polychaetes. At 
present there are reports of sanguinicolids from ampharetids and (more 
commonly) serpulids and terebellids.  I have a student studying 
sanguinicolids for his PhD and we are keen to find infections in 
polychaetes.  So the question is, do you ever see trematode infections in 
the polychaetes that come your way, and do you have any thoughts on 
prevalences and effective approaches to looking for infections.  We are 
familiar with approaches to looking for infected molluscs but polychaetes 
are rather foreign to us". --  

Any responses to me as I am also interested in the outcome and then I will 
forward then to Tom and he may then wish to communicate with you 
directly. Cheers and thankyou  Pat  

Dr Pat Hutchings 
Principal Research Scientist 
Marine Invertebrates
Australian Museum
6 College Street
Sydney 2010 Australia

PH:	61-2-9320 6243
FAX:	61-2-9320 6042
path at austmus.gov.au
Visit the Australian Museum on-line at http://www.austmus.gov.au
Just released the Catalogue of Australian Polychaetes- an update of Day
and Hutchings (1979). You can find it at
http://www.environment.gov.au/abrs/abif-fauna/volswww.htm. 
Polychaete & Allies, Fauna of Australia Vol 4a- 2000-for sales see
sales at publish.csiro.au


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