The Three-spined Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus Linnaeus 1758, plays a minor role as a host of Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Krøyer 1837) in the Gulf of Maine.

Abstract

The sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (Krøyer 1837), is a significant parasite of farmed salmon throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Management of on-farm louse populations can be improved by understanding the role that wild fish play in sustaining and providing refuge for the local population of sea lice. In this study, 1,064 sticklebacks were captured. Of these animals, 176 individuals were carrying a total of 238 sea lice, yielding a prevalence and intensity of 16.5% and 1.4 lice per fish, respectively. Detailed examination of the sea lice on the three-spined sticklebacks captured in Cobscook Bay found two L. salmonis individuals using three-spined sticklebacks as hosts. A 2012 survey of wild fish in Cobscook Bay, Maine, found multiple wild hosts for Caligus elongatus (von Nordmann 1832), including three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.), but no L. salmonis were found in this earlier study.