IN-VITRO LIFE-CYCLE AND PROPAGATION OF QUAHOG PARASITE UNKNOWN

An important new disease of hard clams or quahogs (Mercenaria mercenar ia) in the northeastern United States appears to be caused by the prot ist described as QPX (quahog parasite unknown). Identification of the factors that cause or promote the disease in clams and development of diagnostic methods, as well as characterization of the life cycle of t he parasite, require that the organism be cultured in vitro. Using sta ndard tissue culture techniques, we report here the long-term propagat ion and in vitro life cycle of QPX.