Abstract

Occurrence and prevalence of Marteilioides chungmueasis have been reported in several waters around Tongyeong but no report has been made for Pukman bay. Therefore, we investigated that the prevalence and infection intensities in Pukman Bay at the inside and the outside areas which are hydrographically divided by tidal current. Furthermore, various environmental parameters were investigated in order to elucidate effective parameter for parasitic infection. Infection rates of Marteilioides chungmuensis in adult oysters were ranged 3.3-20.0% at the inside area during September 2002 through January 2003, and 3.3-30.9% at the outside area during August 2002 through January 2003. External manifestation of infected oyster consisted of abnormal egg masses with nodular appearance in the soft tissue. Histopathological symptoms included massive hemocytic infiltration within or around the follicle wall and atrophic epithelium of digestive diverticula. For the environmental parameters, comparative study made differences between two side of the Bay during the infection period: inside > outside for SS while inside < outside for chlorophyll-a. A positive relationship was observed between chlorophyll-a and infection period, which might indicate the difference in food availability between two areas. The prevalence of ovarian parasite Marteilioides chungmuensis, therefore, was highly associated with food availability. Pearson's correlation analysis was made between environmental parameters and infection prevalence. Significance was observed in water temperature (p < 0.05), suspended solids (p < 0.01) and chlorophyll-a (p < 0.05). A principle component analysis showed that infection of the ovarian parasite, Marteilioides chungmuensis, exhibited effects of seasonality (component I = 55.2%) and chemical/physical environmental factors (component II = 24.4%). These results clearly indicate that the infection of ovarian parasite, M. chungmuensis in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is closely associated with seasonality and food availability.