Parasitic Helminth Fauna of Parachanna obscura in River Ogun, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract

The helminth parasites in African snakehead, Parachanna obscura in River Ogun was investigated to determine the occuring parasite species with respect to size (length class) and gender of the fish. Atotal of 180 specimens of P. obscura was sampled from January to August 2016. The fish were processed through standard parasitological procedures. Two nematodes (Procamallanus leavionchus and Camallanus spp.), three cestodes (Diphyllobothrium latum, Ligula intestinalis and Khawia sinensis) and one monogenean trematode (Gyrodactylus spp) were recovered from the specimens. Overall, 96.3% of fish samples collected had helminthic infection with male (94.2%) and female (97.8%) incidences not being significantly different (p>0.05). Generally, there were no correlations between the total number of each parasite with respect to fish gender but many of the helminth species number showed positive correlations with increasing length of the fish. The mean densities of infection among the length classes were significantly different, P. leavionchus (1.5 ±0.9- 15.41 ±3.4), Camallanus spp (0.2 ±0.8 - 12.7 ±11.2), L. intestinalis (1.0 ±1.1 - 7.4 ±12.9), Gyrodactylus (1.1 ±2.2 - 12.3 ±10.8) and K. sinensis (0.2 ±0.6 – 7.1 ±12.3)