Status and recovery of indigenous crayfish populations after recent crayfish plague outbreaks in the Czech Republic

The crayfish plague pathogen (Aphanomyces astaci) is one of the most important threats to indigenous European crayfish. Although it belongs among the most studied pathogens of invertebrates, only a few recent studies are available on the epidemiology of crayfish plague and its long-term effects on crayfish populations. We provide detailed data on 11 populations of European crayfish (Astacus astacus, A. leptodactylus, Austropotamobius torrentium) hit by crayfish plague in the Czech Republic between 1998 and 2011. We repeatedly surveyed the affected localities in the years following the disease outbreaks to investigate potential recovery of crayfish populations and to search for the likely sources of infection. Although the mortalities severely decimated all studied populations, European crayfish could be found in the watercourse catchments after the disease outbreaks in all but two cases. In five cases, migration barriers apparently supported crayfish survival; in two cases, the disease stopped spreading even without the presence of any barrier. Indigenous crayfish were recorded directly in the affected parts of five studied streams after some time but in most cases populations have not yet reached the original densities. Their recovery seems influenced by the population size in unaffected refuges as well as time since the outbreak. Sources of infection and transmission pathways of A. astaci apparently vary in the Czech Republic. Aphanomyces astaci of three genotype groups originating in different crayfish plague pathogen carriers were involved in the outbreaks. Direct transmission of A. astaci from invasive American crayfish present in the same stream is likely in three cases; however, these host crayfish were not recorded at the remaining localities, and long-range dispersal or other pathogen sources may be assumed. We hypothesize that chronic A. astaci infections leading to disease outbreaks under specific conditions may occur in some populations of indigenous crayfish in the Czech Republic.