Dermowatch: A new tool for managing Perkinsus marinus disease in Eastern Oysters, Crassostrea virginica
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Abstract
A website called DermoWatch has been established (www.blueblee.com/dermo) to track the progression of Perkinsus marinus (= Dermocystidium marinum) in Galveston Bay and allow users from other locations to also calculate a time to a critical level of disease (t sub(Crit)). Data on water temperature (T) and salinity (S), initial level of disease and oyster length are entered. An embedded model converts measured weighted incidence (WI) values and the critical WI to parasite number (a WI of 1.5 is considered critical), calculates a rate of change (r) of the parasite population using measured values of T and S, and solves for t sub(Crit) by simulation. Estimates of t sub(Crit) from Galveston Bay and other areas should support decisions concerning transplanting infected oysters to lower salinity areas, harvesting heavily-infected populations early, and diverting freshwater into high-salinity estuaries