McAllister Chris T, Cloutman Donald G, Leis Eric M, Robison Henry W
Division of Natural Sciences, Northeast Texas Community College, 2886 FM 1735, Chapel Hill Road, Mt. Pleasant, Texas 75455.
P.O. Box 197, Burdett, Kansas 67523.
J Parasitol. 2024 Nov 1;110(6):642-648. doi: 10.1645/23-105.
During August 2021 and again in July 2022 and July 2023, 4 freckled madtoms, Noturus nocturnus, were collected from a creek in Columbia County, Arkansas (Ouachita River drainage), and their gills, gallbladder, fins, integument, musculature, and other major organs were examined for myxozoans. The gallbladder of 1 (25%) was infected with apparently novel myxozoans. Qualitative and quantitative morphological data were from preserved formalin-fixed myxospores. Molecular data include 2,059 bp (for a Myxidium sp.) and 951 bp (for an unobserved Myxozoa sp.) sequences of the partial small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA gene. Phylogenetic analysis placed the Myxidium sp. among a clade of myxozoans that infect fish from the southern portion of North America. These represent the first myxozoans reported from the gallbladder of madtoms.