Dr Kate Hutson

Contact Details

Campus:	Townsville
Office:	DB32-008B
Phone:	+61 7 4781 6216
Email:	kate.hutson@jcu.edu.au

Research Interests

• Marine parasitology

• Parasite interactions between wild and aquaculture fishes

• Risk assessment and parasite management

I was bitten by the parasite bug when I was in primary school. My Mum extracted a head louse out of my best friend’s hair and showed it to us underneath a microscope.I soon discovered I could combine my penchant for fishing with my passion for parasites.I have been hooked by marine parasitology ever since.

Parasites have the potential to limit the growth of Australian fishing industries through mortality, morbidity and reduced marketability. My research involves identifying parasites of farmed and wild Australian fish species (including candidate aquaculture species), and providing risk assessments for industry development.

Recent and Current Projects

• Taxonomy (identification and description) of aporocotylids (blood flukes), copepods (sea-lice) and monogeneans (skin and gill flukes)

• Blood fluke infections in wild, candidate and aquaculture fishes

• Phylogenetics of the blood fluke genus Paradeontacylix

• Wild fish aggregations at sea-cage farms: implications for aquatic animal health

• Parasite transmission, life cycles and life histories

• Wild fish movement (conventional tagging)

• Parasite as indicators of geographic population structure

• Parasite risk assessment for kingfish (Seriola spp.) aquaculture

• Genetic population structure of kingfish in Australia and New Zealand

Recent and Currently Supervised Projects

• Mr Alex Brazenor (current Honours candidate) is examining life cycles of problematic parasites in barramundi (Lates calcarifer).

• Mr Thane Militz (current Honours candidate) is determining whether garlic extract can be used as a natural control against Cryptocaryon irritans in ornamental fishes

Teaching

• AQ2001/5006 - Aquaculture: Introduction to Aquaculture

• AQ3015 - Aquaculture: Sustainable Aquaculture

Selected Publications

Full Publication List

Miller, P., Fitch, A., Gardner, M., Hutson, K.S., & Mair, G. (2011). Genetic population structure of Yellowtail Kingfish (Seriola lalandi) in temperate Australasian waters inferred from microsatellite markers. Aquaculture 319: 328-336..

Catalano S.R., Hutson K.S., Ratcliff R.M. & Whittington I.D. 2011. The value of host and parasite identification for arripid fish. Marine and Freshwater Research 62, 72-82.

Hutson, K.S., Brock, E.L. & Steer, M.A. 2011. Spatial variation in parasite abundance: evidence of geographic population structuring in Hyporhamphus melanochir. Journal of Fish Biology 78, 166-182.

Catalano, S.R. & Hutson K.S. 2010. Harmful parasitic crustaceans infecting wild arripids: a potential threat to southern Australian finfish aquaculture. Aquaculture 303, 101-104.

Repulles-Albelda A., Montero F.E., Holzer A.S., Ogawa K., Hutson K.S. & Raga J.A. 2008. Speciation of Paradeontacylix spp. (Sanguinicolidae) in Seriola dumerili. Two new species of the genus Paradeontacylix from the Mediterranean. Parasitology International 57, 405-414.

Hutson K.S., Ernst I. & Whittington I.D. 2007. Risk assessment for parasites of Seriola lalandi (Carangidae) in South Australian sea cage aquaculture. Aquaculture 271, 85-99.

Hutson K.S., Mooney A.J., Ernst I. & Whittington I.D. 2007. Metazoan parasite assemblages of wild Seriola lalandi (Perciformes: Carangidae) from eastern and southern Australia. Parasitology International 56, 95-105.

Hutson K.S. & Whittington I.D. 2006. Paradeontacylix godfreyi n. sp. (Digenea: Sanguinicolidae) from the heart of wild Seriola lalandi (Perciformes: Carangidae) in southern Australia. Zootaxa 1151, 55-68.

Current funding

My research is funded by:

• Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS)

• Fisheries Research & Development Corporation (FRDC)

• ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology