Souhila Ramdani, Zouhir Ramdane

Parasites and their host fish in the Gulf of Bejaia, Algerian coast

Abstract A total of 1643 specimens of 15 fish species belonging to 8 families, from three different study sites off the Algerian coast (the Gulf of Bejaia, the Soummam River and the aquaculture farm of Beni Ksila) were examined for their parasites. The examined fish species play host to several taxa of parasites, especially metazoans such as six digeneans (25.39%), three monogeneans, one acanthocephalan (20 %), five nematodes (13.48 %), three cestodes (11.58%) and nine crustaceans (9.77%). Only one protozoan parasite, Glugea sp. was collected and identified (45.52%). Three species (Opechona ollsoni, Dichelyne (Cucullanellus) pleuronectidis, Hysterothylacium reliquens) are new to the Algerian coastal parasite fauna. The highest parasite infestation rates with a prevalence of 100%, were recorded in Trachinus draco and Xiphias gladius followed by Mullus barbatus and Sardinella aurita with a prevalence of 91.67% and 87.62%, respectively. No infection with parasites was found in the fish species from brackish waters (Soummam River) and from the aquaculture farm (Beni Ksila).

Doi https://doi.org/10.35513/21658005.2024.1.3

Keywords Parasites; fish; Gulf of Bejaia; Algeria

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