Krieg, Raphael
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Large‐scale eDNA monitoring of multiple aquatic pathogens as a tool to provide risk maps for wildlife diseases
Multiple parasites and pathogens cause disease in aquatic wildlife and in aquaculture species, generating a need for monitoring and management. Conventional disease monitoring methods involve laborious, costly, and invasive capture and examination of host species, and require specialized expertise for every host and pathogen of interest. Environmental DNA could provide simultaneous occurrence data for multiple pathogens across different host taxa, valuable for using parasite diversity as, for example, a bioindicator of ecosystem disturbance. Here, we tested the potential for simultaneous detection of four wildlife pathogens in water samples from 280, mainly riverine, sites across Switzerland. We targeted the crayfish pathogen, the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, and the fish pathogens Saprolegnia parasitica and Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae. The eDNA detection showed a widespread distribution of A. astaciS. parasitica T. bryosalmonae A. astaci and T. bryosalmonae were not detected in some alpine river catchments. B. dendrobatidis was detected only rarely, which was expected since the sampling did not target amphibian breeding sites. Co‐detection rates were higher in rivers than in lakes, likely reflecting the habitat preferences and distributions of the host species. We discuss the advantages and limitations of eDNA‐based pathogen monitoring and list a set of recommendations for managers. Our study illustrates how eDNA‐based techniques can monitor several pathogen species concurrently, thus facilitating more comprehensive disease monitoring schemes. Combined with metabarcoding approaches in the future, eDNA‐based sampling and detection can facilitate the incorporation of parasite and pathogen occurrence and diversity as an indicator for aquatic ecosystem health, and for revealing the hidden biodiversity and structure of parasite communities.
Using eDNA to simultaneously detect the distribution of native and invasive crayfish within an entire country
The introduction of invasive crayfish has led to a decline of many European native species of crayfish across their range. In this study, novel duplex assays for all crayfish occurring in Switzerland were developed. We aimed to identify the distribution of the seven species using a traditional trap surveillance method as well by collecting water samples to detect eDNA by species-specific quantitative real-time PCR. We reveal our overall experience in finding optimal field and laboratory techniques to discover the distribution and abundance of native and invasive species in order to enhance knowledge of early invasive species invasion and highlight important pockets of populations where native species remain, for implementation of conservation strategies. Using eDNA, important populations of native noble and white-clawed crayfish were revealed in multiple waters across various cantons. The successful identification of native and invasive crayfish species in Switzerland using eDNA can be applied to future nationwide projects. This method which has the ability to detect all species simultaneously across an entire country, will allow an improvement in freshwater crayfish conservation management.