Freshwater mussels are one of the most endangered animal groups globally, making them a high conservation priority. Conservationists increasingly employ translocation or captive breeding procedures to support ailing populations, and the ecosystem engineering capabilities of mussels are being increasingly harnessed in bioremediation projects. However, there is little consideration of the risk of pathogen transmission when moving mussels from hatcheries or wild donor populations into new habitats. This is of significant concern as recent developments suggest parasites and diseases are highly prevalent and have contributed to several mass population-level die-offs. Here, we explicitly highlight the risks of pathogen spread in mussel translocations, explore how these risks are mediated, and provide recommendations for both research and action to avoid the inadvertent spread of virulent pathogens when conserving vulnerable mussel populations. While targeted at freshwater conservationists, this perspective has relevance for considering translocation-mediated disease and parasite spread in any study system.

中文翻译：

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不要动贻贝？保护行动中的寄生虫和疾病风险

淡水贻贝是全球最濒危的动物群体之一，因此成为高度保护的重点。保护主义者越来越多地采用易位或圈养繁殖程序来支持患病的种群，并且越来越多地利用贻贝的生态系统工程能力在生物修复项目中。然而，在将贻贝从孵化场或野生捐赠种群转移到新栖息地时，很少考虑病原体传播的风险。这是一个非常令人担忧的问题，因为最近的发展表明寄生虫和疾病非常普遍，并导致了几次大规模人口死亡。在这里，我们明确强调了贻贝易位中病原体传播的风险，探讨了这些风险是如何调节的，并为研究和行动提供建议，以避免在保护脆弱贻贝种群时无意中传播有毒病原体。虽然针对淡水保护主义者，但这种观点与考虑易位介导的疾病和寄生虫在任何研究系统中的传播有关。