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Abstract

In a previous study of Clinostomum marginatum metacercariae in Micropterus dolomieu, I reported that the population parameters of mean abundance, standard deviation, maximum abundance, mean intensity and mean intensity standard deviation were proportional between the total population and the orobranchial numbers for 16 locations in Arkansas Ozark and Ouachita streams. This allowed an assessment of the parasite populations by only examining the mouth and gill areas without sacrificing a valued sports fish. The present study examined the same orobranchial parameters utilizing correlation and descriptive statistics to determine if proportionality also existed between the different localities. I have now included an analysis of skewness and kurtosis (drift and shape) of the populations’ curves. Proportionality of regression values was highly significant in terms of R² and P between all parameters except prevalence, which showed much weaker correlations with the other parameters. The interpretation of these results is that the distribution of infections in the different bass populations are density independent i.e., although the numbers of parasites change from location to location, the pattern of distribution in the host populations remains similar. This may best be explained by a spatiality of distance from the infection source (snails) and nonrandom distribution of hosts (bass) producing aggregation near the snails and a negative binomial distribution throughout the population.

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