Abstract

Noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) stocks on the Estonian Island of Saaremaa are productive and have long been void of major disease outbreaks. Since the early 1990’s, a disease causing cuticle melanisation was observed in some populations. The frequency of infected specimens is high, and can reach 60% of the crayfish in the River Kuke. The disease is assumed to be burn spot disease, but it has not been formally diagnosed. Symptoms are atypical for burn spot disease, at least when compared to symptoms seen in Finland. Microbes were isolated from ten noble crayfish collected from the River Kuke that exhibited disease symptoms. Samples were collected from melanised spots on the abdominal cuticle and walking legs, and a variety of fungi and oomycetes were isolated including; Saprolegnia parasitica, Saprolegnia australis, Mucor hiemalis and Mucor racemosus. A combination of several of these pathogens may cause the atypical symptoms of burn spot disease seen in Estonia, or the isolated Saaremaa crayfish populations may just express disease symptoms differently.

Supplemental Documents

• There are no supplementary documents for this article

Cited By

Citations: