Seasonal occurrence of metazoan parasites in Tigerfish, Hydrocynus vittatus Castelnau, 1861 (Characiformes: Alestidae) from Sanyati Basin, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Seasonal occurrence of metazoan parasites in Tigerfish, Hydrocynus vittatus Castelnau, 1861 (Characiformes: Alestidae) from Sanyati Basin, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe
 
Creator Mabika, Nyasha Barson, Maxwell van Dyk, Cobus Avenant-Oldewage, Annemarie
 
Subject biology; zoology; parasitology; fish parasitology Annulotrema; Contracaecum; cestode; Lamproglena; prevalence; aggregation
Description Lake Kariba is a tropical lake with slight variations in seasonal temperature. Temperature is an important physical variable in the biology of both fish and their parasites. Currently, there is no information on the seasonal occurrence of fish parasites in Lake Kariba. The objective of this study was to investigate the seasonal occurrence of metazoan parasites in Hydrocynus vittatus in Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Twenty fish specimens were collected by seine netting per season between October 2014 and July 2015 in the Sanyati Basin, Lake Kariba, and examined for metazoan parasites. Mean water temperatures ranged from 24.1 °C to 31.2 °C with slight variations between the seasons. Metazoan parasites consisting of Monogenea (Annulotrema pikei, Annulotrema pseudonili, Annulotrema bracteatum), Nematoda (Contracaecum larvae), Copepoda (Lamproglena hemprichii), Cestoda (larval cestodes, Ichthybothrium sp.) and Pentastomida (pentastomid larvae) were recorded. Larval cestodes were recorded in autumn and spring, while pentastome larvae were recorded in summer and spring. The Ichthybothrium sp. was recorded once in winter. Annulotrema pikei and A. pseudonili were observed on the gills and A. bracteatum on both the gills and the skin. Contracaecum larvae, L. hemprichii and A. bracteatum (from the skin) were recorded in all the seasons, with slight variations in prevalence, mean abundance and mean intensity. However, these variations were not statistically significant (analysis of variance or ANOVA, p 0.05). The slight variations in occurrence of the parasites were probably because of the thermal stability of the lake where variation in temperature was small between seasons. Both A. bracteatum and Contracaecum larvae were aggregated on the fish host, whereas L. hemprichii exhibited a random distribution. Parasite diversity was at its highest during winter.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor N. Chiyaka and E. Zingwe for assistance G. van Rensburg for map Univ. of Zimbabwe and Univ. of Johannesburg for research infrastructural facilities National Research Foundation and University Research Committee for funding to AA-O
Date 2019-08-22
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Data collection
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ojvr.v86i1.1659
 
Source Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research; Vol 86, No 1 (2019); 6 pages 2219-0635 0030-2465
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/1659/1962 https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/1659/1961 https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/1659/1963 https://ojvr.org/index.php/ojvr/article/view/1659/1960
 
Coverage Lake Kariba; Zimbabwe N/A season; size; distribution
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Nyasha Mabika, Maxwell Barson, Cobus van Dyk, Annemarie Avenant-Oldewage https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT

International Tel: 021 975 2602

15 Oxford street, Durbanville, Cape Town, 7550 (South Africa)
Copyright © AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.
No unauthorised duplication allowed