After the first spread of crayfish plague (aphanomycosis) at the end of the nineteenth century, the formerly abundant populations of native crayfish in Poland declined drastically. Analysis of historical data on the occurrence and distribution of crayfish in Poland led to the conclusion that without human intervention the native crayfish species would be at high risk of being made extinct. The ...

The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) is a vector of the fatal crayfish plague pathogen (Aphanomyces astaci). Both species are listed among the world ́s 100 worst invasive species. From its origin in China the Chinese mitten crab was introduced to Europe, presumably via ballast water from ships. A. astaci originated in North America and is assumed to have been firstly introduced to Europe...

As a vector of the crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci), invasive crayfish pose a major threat to endemic crayfish species in Europe. But do they affect whole ecosystems and fish species as well? A comprehensive review was done using online search engines on current literature to elucidate possible crayfish effects. It showed that they have the potential to decimate benthic invertebrate populat...

This is an Open distribution, Abstract – The protected European stone crayfish, Austropotamobius torrentium, is a host to epibionts inhabiting its exoskeleton. Despite evidence of the close association of these epibionts to the crayfish and the beneficial services provided for the crayfish, the main factors influencing their occurrence, distribution and abundance are still poorly understood. In...

The signal freshwater crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus was found to be susceptible to infection with white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Histopathological observations of various tissues of virus-injected crayfish showed similar symptoms to those from WSSV-infected penaeid shrimp, but no appearance of white spots on the cuticle or reddish body colour were observed, although these are the promine...

The pathogenic chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been linked to global declines and extinctions of amphibians, making it one of the most devastating wildlife pathogens known. Understanding the factors that affect disease dynamics in this system is critical for mitigating infection and protecting threatened species. Crayfish are hosts of this pathogen and can transmit Bd to ...

We have characterized the behavioural patterns of crayfish during agonistic bouts between groups of crayfish of four different body lengths (9-19, 20-32, 41-48 and 69-75 mm) to characterize changes in the patterns of agonistic encounter during development. The behaviour of both dominant and subordinate animals was analysed by single frame measurement of video recordings. Behavioural acts that o...

Red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is used for the innate immune defense of crustaceans due to its convenience for laboratory culture and study. To know more about the transcriptome of the crayfish, we constructed and sequenced a cDNA library from a mixture of hemocytes and hepatopancreas from white spot syndrome virus (WSSV)-infected crayfish. By random sequencing, we obtained 9115 high-qu...

Adult crayfish (Cambarus diogenes diogenes) exposed to 8.41 +/- 0.17 microg silver/L (19.4% as Ag+) in moderately hard freshwater under flow-through conditions for 96 h exhibited ionoregulatory disturbance, elevated metabolic ammonia (T(amm)) production and substantial silver accumulation in the gills, hemolymph, and hepatopancreas. The ionoregulatory disturbance included both a generally reduc...