Host restriction, morphology and isoenzymes among trypanosomes of some British freshwater fishes

SUMMARY Trypanosomes were studied from the blood of 6 species of small British fish caught in the River Lee. Morphologically the trypanosomes from the blood ofNemacheilus barbatulusL.,Phoxinus phoxinusL.,Cottus gobioL.,Gobio gobioL.,Gasterosteus aculeatusandPungitus pungitusL. were indistinguishable. Cross-transmission experiments using syringe passage of culture forms and also the leech vectorHemiclepsis marginatashowed that the trypanosomes were not host specific. The isoenzyme patterns of culture forms fromN. barbatulusandP. phoxinuswere identical for 11 enzymes studied. The trypanosomes from the 6 species of fish previously classified as separate species are, on the basis of these results, regarded as a single species,Trypanosoma cobitis(Mitrophanow, 1883).