More importantly, the strong host response produced by oysters against parasites seems to be the principal factor structuring metazoan parasite communities of oysters.
The host response against parasites is suggested as the principal factor responsible for depauperate parasite communities of oysters.
Each tray was split into two parts and contained 100 oysters from two different families.
After inoculation, both challenged and control oysters were left overnight, out of seawater, to promote retention of the parasites, and then returned to seawater.
Copepods were rinsed in filtered sea water and were directly added in tanks containing uninfected oysters.
We therefore cannot assume that experimental conditions were optimal for transmission of the parasite from oysters to copepods.
The dead oysters were found to have light to moderate infection.
Four oysters out of 90 died among the challenged group but no mortality was observed among the control group.
