Syllabus
Transport to the base
Travelling from Prague to our base and back takes usually 3 full days. We will travel together by two cars and by ferries. Time spent on base itself will take 7 days. The whole time needed for the course is usually 10 full days.
Programme
Students will be divided to four working groups. Each group will alter all planned activities (fishing from the boat – half day, fishing from the cost – half day, fish dissections – full day, managing of food for other participants, and work on final prezentation – full day). Part of the course will be dedicated to excursion on halibut farms, salmon farms or fish slaughterhouse. At the end, each group will be presenting partial results from course itself (findings in chosen taxonomic groups, statistical data about parasites found etc.)
Previous years
Pictures and other materials from previous years can be found through Moodle system (https://dl2.cuni.cz/) under the name Terénní kurz parazitologie ryb II (https://dl2.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=2332) (only in Czech for now)
Annotation
Introduction
New course for selected students is ideal for postgradual or advanced MSc. students. It is focused on parasites of marine fishes and alternates irregularly with course Terénní parazitologie II (Romania with veterinarians focused on farm/domestic animals). It follows up on Field course of fish parasitology I (Terénní kurz parazitologie ryb I), which is held on field station Ruda in South Bohemia and works with freshwater fishes. Students interested in this course should have completed basic parasitological course (Základy parazitologie)+ practical part or similar course, better is, if they graduated in practical course from helminthology, protozoology and medical entomology. Experiences from field course of fish parasitology (Terénní kurz parazitologie ryb I), Ichthyology (Ichtyologie), Laboratory techniques in parasitology (Parazitologické laboratorní techniky) etc. will also be usable. Participants will be chosen from enrolled students based on their specialization and spectre of completed courses. Part of the costs for travelling and accommodation on the base (7-8 thousands of Czech crowns) is necessary to be paid by each student.
Course content
Students will learn theoretically and practically the methods of fish hunting and methods of intravital sampling from hosts directly in the field (from the boat and from the cost). At the base, they will find out how to perform a thorough parasitological dissection of hunted fish, how to determine the parasites found, and consider the possibility of parasite cycling in the environment or through intermediate hosts. The partial results will be presented at the end of the course to the other participants in the formo f 10 min. prezentation. During the course, we will visit professional fish farms and fish slaughterhouse, where we will find out their up-to-date parasitological problems and how they are able to solve them.
Timing
Excursion timing will be focused on summer season (usually end of July/beginning of August). Based on students/teachers demands or other circumstances, timing can be finally shifted a bit. Final schedule is usually known around April.
Place
Our place of interest is usually on the cost of middle Norway. Participants learn how to catch and determine various species of marine fish or other marine organisms, how to collect samples for future analysis. On the fisherman’s base, they will analyse samples and dissect gained fishes for parasites, which will be determined then.