People

Education

B.S. 2004 Rowan University

Research Interests

My research interests are parasitology and pathology, including host-parasite interactions and the influence of environmental or anthropogenic factors. I have been involved in bivalve disease diagnoses for health certifications as well as in various projects including QPX, Dermo, and MSX monitoring and a histological investigation of oyster parasites and pathology in three Chinese estuaries containing oyster species such as Crassostrea ariakensis.

• Collaborative Research: Field and Modeling Studies in Support of Understanding Disease Resistance in Estuarine Populations and Response to Climate Change. NSF-Ecology of Infectious Diseases.

• Evaluation and Genetic Analysis of Hard Clam, Mercenaria mercenaria, Stocks for QPX Resistance. USDA Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center .

• Investigations into the potential health and economic benefits of bivalve/finfish co-culture. USDA Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center .

M.S. thesis research: Ciliate Xenomas in Crassostrea virginica from Great Bay , New Hampshire . This study seeks to gather baseline epizootiological data and to characterize both the ciliates and the xenomas that they form so that future research can elucidate the cause and effect of the unusual abundance of xenomas in oysters from Great Bay , NH .

Publications

Bushek, D., B. Landau and E. Scarpa. 2008. Perkinsus chesapeaki in stout razor clams
Tagelus plebius from Delaware Bay. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 78:243-247.