Hydraulic Habitat Structure Impacts Risk of Trematode Infection

Abstract— Variability in infection rates of trematodes Diplostomum pseudospathaceum in 0+ rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss under different hydraulic regimes was studied in the experimental setup with regulated flow rates and environmental heterogeneity. The average infection rate in the conditions of the current was 1.5 times less than that in the stagnant water. An increase of the flow rate from 3.2 to 11.3 cm/s did not result in lower infection rates, while the interindividual variability in the infection rate (coefficient of variation) tended to increase along with changing the still-water conditions (20%) to the high flow rate environments (40%) within the experiment. A decrease in th…