The Current State of Knowledge on Parasitic Copepods (Siphonostomatoida: Pandaridae) of Elasmobranchs

Marcia Raquel Pegoraro de Macedo; Marialetizia Palomba; Mario Santoro

doi:10.1016/j.cvex.2022.12.006

The Current State of Knowledge on Parasitic Copepods (Siphonostomatoida: Pandaridae) of Elasmobranchs

Vet Clin North Am Exot Anim Pract. 2023 May;26(2):475-509. doi: 10.1016/j.cvex.2022.12.006.

Authors

Marcia Raquel Pegoraro de Macedo¹, Marialetizia Palomba², Mario Santoro³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale n 1, Naples 80121, Italy.
² Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Largo dell'Università snc, Viterbo 01100, Italy.
³ Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale n 1, Naples 80121, Italy. Electronic address: mario.santoro@szn.it.

PMID: 36965882
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvex.2022.12.006

Abstract

Elasmobranch fishes comprise sharks and sawfish (infraclass Selachii), and rays, skates, and stingrays (infraclass Batoidea). Many elasmobranch species are popular fish exhibited in zoos and public aquariums. They may serve as hosts for a great variety of parasites. Among these, parasitic copepods are commonly known to cause serious damage to their hosts. In this paper, we summarize and analyse the existing literature on the pandarid copepods (Siphonostomatoida Burmeister, 1835) of elasmobranch fishes, as it relates to their diversity, life cycles, host-specificity, biogeography, pathology, and available treatments.

Keywords: Batoidea; Copepods; Ectoparasites; Elasmobranchs; Fish; Pandaridae; Selachii; Sharks.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Copepoda*
Parasites*
Sharks* / parasitology