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David J. Páez

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Theory of the evolution of pathogen specialization suggests that a specialist pathogen gains high fitness in one host, but this comes with fitness loss in other hosts. By contrast, a generalist pathogen does not achieve high fitness in any host, but gains ecological fitness by exploiting different hosts, and has higher fitness than specialists in non-specialized hosts. As a result, specialist pathogens are predicted to have greater variation in fitness across hosts, and generalists would have lower fitness variation across hosts. We test these hypotheses by measuring pathogen replicative fitness as within-host viral loads from the onset of infection to the beginning of virus clearance, using the rhabdovirus infectious...
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Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) represents one of the most critical challenges for salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. There are three genogroups of IHNV, designated U, M, and L; the U is further delineated into two subgroups, UC and UP, and the M is further delineated into four subgroups (MA – MD). The UP, UC and MD subgroups co-occur in the Columbia River Basin where the host species sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead trout spawn and rear. Field prevalence data shows that UC viruses exhibit a generalist strategy in Chinook, and steelhead, while two other virus lineages, MD and UP, are more consistent with being specialists in steelhead or sockeye salmon, respectively. The L is found in...
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We characterized a natural sea louse epizootic of Caligus clemensi and the effects of parasitism on Pacific herring Clupea pallasii in Port Angeles Harbor, WA, USA. Infestation prevalence on newly metamorphosed age0 Pacific herring reached 100% prevalence by mid-August. At this time, the mean louse intensity was 4.6 lice and a positive correlation occurred between louse intensity and Pacific herring body length. The epizootic then waned, with infestation prevalence decreasing to less than 25% and the mean parasite intensity falling below 1 louse by October. In controlled experiments, louse-induced mortality was negligible in controlled experiments. While skin injuries were not detected, motile lice preferentially...
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