Growth, mortality and infection success data from Procambarus virginalis infection trials

<p><span>The dataset STRIVE consists of two files which contain: </span><span>(1) measurements of wet weight (g) and total length (mm) of juvenile marbled crayfish (<em>Procambarus virginalis</em>) used in infection trials performed at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb; and (2) records of juvenile marbled crayfish mortality and detection of crayfish plague pathogen (<em>Aphanomyces astaci</em>) in individuals used in infection trials under (1). Two sets of experiments were performed: Experiment 1 where juvenile marbled crayfish were continuously exposed to two concentrations of <em>A. astaci</em> (7500 and 15000 zoospore/mL) and Experiment 2 where juveniles were exposed to a higher pathogen load (15000 zoospores/mL) but under differing feeding regime (once a week vs. five times a week). In both experiments, all infected groups had respective non-infected control groups. Infections were repeated every two weeks, and individuals were measured and weighed before consecutive infections. Wet weight was measured using a digital scale, while the total length was measured from photographs using the image processing program, ImageJ. All crayfish were tested at the end of experiments for the presence of <em>A. astaci</em> in the crayfish cuticle using PCR-based assay with specific primers which amplify the ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) region of the <em>A. astaci</em> 5.8 rRNA gene. </span></p>