DAO

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

DAO is a hybrid research journal on all aspects of disease phenomena in aquatic organisms.

Online: ISSN 1616-1580

Print: ISSN 0177-5103

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/dao

Impact Factor1.2 (JCR 2025 release)

Article Acceptance Rate47.2% (2024)

Average Time in Review183 days (2024)

Total Annual Downloads587.054 (2025)

Volume contents
Dis Aquat Org 127:49-56 (2017)

Quantifying parasite presence in relation to biological parameters of harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena stranded on the Dutch coast

ABSTRACT: Harbour porpoises are often found to be infected by endoparasites in several organs including the lungs and stomach as well as the heart, liver and ears. Nevertheless there is still little knowledge about the impact, ecology, transmission, and virulence of these parasitic infections. Here, we profile the presence of parasites in 4 frequently infected organs (lungs, stomach, liver and ears) in relation to biological parameters of harbour porpoises stranded along the Dutch coastline between December 2008 and December 2013. We found that parasites were common, with prevalence of 68% in lungs, 74.4% in ears, 26% in stomach and 23.5% in liver. We used generalised linear models to further quantify parasite presence in relation to biological data gathered during necropsy (sex, body length and nutritive condition). Body length (used as a proxy for age) was significant in explaining parasite presence for all organs with increasing probability of having the parasite with increasing body length. For the parasitic infections in the ears and stomach the nutritive condition was an additional significant factor, with a higher probability of parasite presence in porpoises in a poorer nutritive condition. The results of this study can be used as a baseline for assessing parasite presence in harbour porpoises and are a first step towards linking parasite infections to basic biological data gathered during necropsy.

KEYWORDS

Mariëlle T. I. ten Doeschate (Corresponding Author)

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, Netherlands
  • Wildlife Management, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Agora 1, 8934 CJ Leeuwarden, Netherlands
marieltdoeschate@gmail.com

Lonneke L. IJsseldijk (Co-author)

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, Netherlands

Sjoukje Hiemstra (Co-author)

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, Netherlands

Els A. de Jong (Co-author)

  • Wildlife Management, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Agora 1, 8934 CJ Leeuwarden, Netherlands

Arjen Strijkstra (Co-author)

  • Wildlife Management, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Agora 1, 8934 CJ Leeuwarden, Netherlands

Andrea Gröne (Co-author)

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, Netherlands

Lineke Begeman (Co-author)

  • Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, Netherlands
  • Present address: