Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Diplozoon paradoxum (Nordmann, 1832) (Monogenea: Diplozoidae) from gill filaments of Schizothorax plagiostomus (Heckle, 1838) (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), from the river Panjkora District Dir, Pakistan: A new locality record

4^th International Conference on Parasitology

September 01-02, 2017 | Prague, Czech Republic

Wali Khan, Hameed Afzal, Safdar Khan, Junaid Ahmad and Ubaid Ullah

Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol

Abstract:

Schizothorax plagiostomus (the snow trout) is one of the economically important fish due to its commercial, nutritive and consumption values. The current study was aimed to evaluate the occurrence and prevalence of Diplozoon paradoxum (Nordmann1832) on the gill filaments of Schizothorax plagiostomus (Heckle, 1838) from the river Panjkora District Dir Pakistan. Samples of the monogenea were collected from the gills of the snow trout fish S. plagiostomus (Heckle, 1838) with the use of gill nets. A total of 208 (160 females and 48 males) specimens of Schizothorax plagiostomus were sampled from March to September 2016. Of the total, 40 S. plagiostomus were parasitized (mean prevalence, P=2.74%; mean abundance, A=0.22), with the parasite occurring throughout the study area and with wide fluctuations in prevalence values ranging from 0 to 7.21%. Month wise data revealed that the fish trapped in the months of June (39.13%), May (26.08%), followed by March (15.21%) were highly infected, while least prevalence rate of infection was found in the fish collected in the months of August (10.86%) and April (8.69%) respectively. Adults D. paradoxum and their eggs were found predominantly infecting the first gill arch. Size of the attachment organs has also been shown to play a role in this specificity, because smaller attachment structures favor stronger holdfast to areas where flow might be stronger compared to larger attachment structures. This is the first report detailing the occurrence and prevalence of a natural infection (the D. paradoxum) of the cyprinid fishes in this region.