Procambarus virginalis (Lyko, 2017) is an emerging invasive alien species of an unknown origin, with established populations in the wild in 15 European countries. This species has high fecundity compared to other native and invasive crayfish species and also reproduces by parthenogenesis, which significantly contributes to its invasion success. Additionally, marbled crayfish is a potential carrier of the crayfish plague pathogen, the oomycete Aphanomyces astaci. American crayfish species have co-evolved with the pathogen and are relatively tolerant to the infection, while European species are less resistant, and the infection usually leads to high mortality. Here, the potential of infection of marbled crayfish with the crayfish plague pathogen has been assessed. Because marbled crayfish origin is unknown, but closely related to the American species Procambarus fallax, it could be prone to the A. astaci infection and could act as its carrier. Here, I assessed experimentally the possibility of its infection by the virulent genotype B isolated from another successful invader, the signal crayfish. The results of the experiment have shown that chronic infection with the pathogen occurred in 40-55% of cases (depending on applied pathogen load) and that high pathogen load in combination with repeated infection leads to a mortality rate of 15-20%. These results show marbled crayfish is a potential vector of different virulent crayfish plague genotypes, and through disease transmission may exert an additional negative impact on native crayfish species.

Procambarus virginalis (Lyko, 2017) je invazivna strana vrsta nepoznatog podrijetla s uspostavljenim populacijama u prirodi zabilježenim u 15 europskih zemalja. Ova vrsta ima veći fekunditet od autohtonih te od ostalih invazivnih stranih vrsta rakova. Uz to ima specifičan način razmnožavanja za deseteronožne rakove, razmnožava se partenogenetski, što je jedan od bitnijih faktora u uspjehu njezine invazije. Uz to je i mogući prijenosnik patogena Aphanomyces astaci, uzročnika bolesti račje kuge. američke vrste koje su ko-evoluirale s ovim patogenom su relativno tolerantne na njega te od njega ne ugibaju, dok su europske vrste manje tolerantne na njega te kod njih infekcija većinom dovodi do visokih stopa mortaliteta. U ovom radu se razmatra mogućnost zaraze mramornog raka patogenom račje kuge. S obzirom da je podrijetlo mramornog raka nepoznato i da je on srodan s vrstom Procambarus fallax mogao bi biti relativno otporan na patogen i time prenositi bolest račje kuge. U ovom radu sam eksperimentalno određivala mogućnost zaraze mramornog raka koncentracije patogena doze i opetovano zaražavanje dovode do mortaliteta u 15-20% slučajeva. Ovi rezultati ukazuju kako je mramorni rak potencijalni vektor različitih virulentnih genotipova račje kuge, čime predstavlja dodatnu opasnost za autohtone vrste rakova.