Diversity and Ecology of Metazoan parasites of Channa gachua (Ham.) of Lake Mansar, Jammu

Ranvijay Singh ^*

Dean of Research Studies, The Cluster University of Jammu, Nawabad, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir 180001, India

Corresponding Author Email: ranvijaysingh172@gmail.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7306307

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Introduction

            Fish serve as a source of animal protein for Man. Both qualitatively and quantitatively the biology of fish parasites is little known in different water bodies of Jammu. Studies on the fish parasites from Jammu province are relatively recent [6] [32], [20], [11] [14-16] [26]

            The ecology of animal parasites is a very interesting and significant part of modern research. [5] thoroughly reviewed factors believed to be involved in the seasonal distribution of fish helminthes and discussed numerous studies dealing with several geographical areas of the world. The present investigation is the first on the diversity and ecology of metazoan parasite infecting channa gachua from lake mansar, Jammu.

Material and Methods

In total 240 Channa gachua were collected from Mansar lake Jammu. Fish were collected with the use of a steel mesh hand net and variable mesh gill nets. Fish were transported to the laboratory alive, measured, sexed, and necropsied within 24 hrs of collection. The alimentary canal viscera and Gonads were removed and placed in separate Petri dishes containing normal saline. The parasites were fixed the acetic acid – formalin-alcohol stained the various carmine stains and prepared as a whole mount. All measurements are in millimeters. The nomenclature to define ecological parameters is under that of [19] and significance is taken at P<0.05. Only adult parasites were subjected to ecological analysis. Dominance is the total number of individuals of a particular parasite species expressed as a percentage of the total number of all parasites in that sample.

Results and Discussion

During the investigation period, the fish Channa gachua was parasitized by 9 different parasite species of which 6 were found as adult parasites and three as larval parasites.  Of the adult species of parasites, 3 species were of digenean trematodes (Phyllodistomum mansari, Allocreadium  A. gachuai n. sp, Genarchopsis G. piscicola); 1 of a cestode (Ancistrocephalus sp;) and 2 of a nematode  (Camallanus jammuensis n. sp., Pseudoproleptus macrognathus). The other three species, which were found as larval stages included 2 clinostome metacercaria (Clinostomum giganticum, Euclinostomum reticultum) and nematode larvae (Camallanus sp. ) Diversity and infection prevalence of the metazoan is represented in table 1. 

Diversity analysis

Phyllodistomum mansari    Sudan, 1979 [32]

Family: Gorgoderidae (Loss, 1899) Loss, 1901.

Sub-family: Phyllodistominae [24] [34]

Location: Intestine

The worms describe belong to Phyllodistomum Braun, 1899 for reasons;

two unbranched testes,  uterus not spreading into the lateral field of forebody, absence of cirrus pouch, and presence of laurel’s canal.

Alloceradium Alloceradium gachuai n.sp.

Family: Alloceradidae (Loss, 1902) Stossich, 1903 [31].

Sub-Family: Alloceradinae, Loss, 1902

Location: Intestine

The worm belongs to the genus Alloceradium because, the vitelleria are spread in the hind body extending but only a little into the fore body, but no further cephlad of the ovary, an oral sucker is non appendiculate.

Genarchopsis Genarchopsis piscicola   Srivastava, 1933 [30]

Family :Hemiuridae Luhe, 1901 [17]

Subfamily: Helipeginae Ejmont, 1931

Location: Intestine

The worms fall under the genus Genarchopsis  [25], due to; a tubular parsprostatica, a prostatic complex enclosed in a thin-walled sac, simple hermaphroditic duct, Posteriorly united caeca.

Ancistrocephalus sp. Monticelli, 1890 [21]

Order: Pseudophyllidea,  Carus, 1863 [3]

Family: Triaenophoridae, Lonnberg, 1889 [13]

Location: Intestine

The worms assigned to genus Ancistrocephalus sp.  [21] for reasons of; having a scolex with an apical disc armed with a  circle of small hooks, Conspicuous neck, distinct external metamerism, proglottids broader than long and craspedote, testes irregularly confined in two lateral fields, a posteriorly placed bilobed ovary,  uterus narrowly coiled with expanded terminal ends, uterine pore mid ventral near the anterior end of proglottids, operculated embryonated eggs.

Camallanus Jammuensis n. sp.

Family: Camallanidae,  Railliet and Henry, 1915 [27].

Location: Intestine

The worms belong to Genus Camallanus [27] due to Stoma consisting of chitnous valves with a well developed white chitinous ring in the base, trident two, chitnous, one ventral and other dorsal, spicules two, unequal, genital papillae 10-13 pairs, vulva pre equatorial backed up by muscular vagina.

Pseudoproleptus macrognathus Gupta and Bakshi, 1984 [8]

Family: Cystidicolidae Chabud, 1975

Location: Intestine

The worms belong to Genus Pseudoproleptus macrognathus [8] for the reasons of mouth bounded by two lateral lips, each with a single tooth and one pair of sub-median papillae, esophagus bipartite,  vulva post equatorial, vagina directed posteriorly, consist of small  ovijector and leaves into two uteri.

Clinostomum giganticum Agarwal, 1960 [1]

(Metacercarial Stage)

Family: Clinostomidae Luhe, 1901 [18]

Sub-Family: Clinostominae

Location: Body Cavity, Muscles, attached to the external intestinal wall, Liver and Air Bladder

The metacercarial fall under genus Clinostomum Leidy, 1956 because;  the oral sucker is surrounded by the collar like fold, acetabulum pre-equatorial, larger and muscular, excretory vesicle V-Shaped with sub-terminal excretory pore.

Euclimostomum reticulum Sudan, 1979 [32]

Family: Clinostomidae Luhe, 1901 [17]

Sub-Family: Euclinostominae Yamaguti, 1958 [34]

Location: Body Cavity, Muscles and Liver

The worm belongs to Euclimostomum Travassos 1928 because of aspinose cuticle, strongly diverticulated ceaca, and highly glandular network of glandular body lying around the  acetabulum up to the anterior testis.

Camallanus larvae

Family: Camallanidae,  Railliet & Henry, 1915 [27]

Location: Intestine

The larval form belongs to genus Camallanus for the reason of a bipartite esophagus and each part ending in globular enlargement.

Ecological analysis

Seasonal infection patterns

The prevalence and intensity of the most frequently encountered metazoan, Phyllodistomum mansari, Allocreadium  A. gachuai n. sp, Genarchopsis G. piscicola, Ancistrocephalus sp. and Cammallanus jammuensis varied from season to season (Table 2). The prevalence and mean intensity of infection were high during the month of Summer (April to July) and fell to low during winter (December-February) indicating a cryptic relationship between temperature and infectivity of a parasite.  While studying the seasonal distribution of helminth parasites of fish Cyrinus carpio [33] recorded similar variations in prevalence and mean intensity.[2] reported that temperature in conjugation with day length affects the feeding activity of the fish and indirectly the immigration rate of parasites.

Effect of Host Size

Correlation analysis between host size and parasite dominance indicates that of the most common 5 metazoan parasites recovered (Table 3)  A.A. gchuai (r = 0.99), P. mansari (r = 0.796) and Ancistrocephalus sp. (r = 0.483) showed the highest dominance of the size group of 70-90. On the other hand, C. jammuensis (r = 0.883) dominated in the fish size group of 130-150 body length, whereas G.G.Pissicola (r = -0.279) dominated in the fishes still higher age group of 150-170 body length.  With the increase in the size of the host, the parasite diversity and mean intensity also increased could be a result of increased food intake with increasing size (hence of increasing age) during which an involuntary increased number of infected transport hosts are eaten by the fish, leading thereby to increase the species richness (= diversity) or increased intensity of one or few of the parasites harboured at the time by the fish.

Allocreadium A. gachuai, the most dominant component of the parasite community (Tables 1-3) infected around 20% of the hosts examined, which in terms of prevalence comes next only to that of Phyllodistomum mansari in C. gachua (27.5%). The parasite was the most intense (mean intensity; 8.54) and constituted 50.56% of all the adult parasites found in this fish, varying in intensity between 1 and 25. The prevalence of this parasite varied in different size classes of the fish between 13 and 28.6 and the mean intensity increased as the fish became bigger. The older the fish becomes the higher its warm load. The correltion co–efficient between the intensity of A. A. gachuai and fish size was significant (r = 0.99; p < .01).

When viewed from the angle of dominance index (Table 3), a marked decline for most parasite taxa in fish hosts above 170 lengths was evident, this drop in the sustainability of older hosts for larger loads of parasites can only be attributed to either inherent resistance to parasites or age-related acquired resistance of hosts against parasites. Hence a general tendency among fish hosts for increased resistance to parasitic infections with an increase in the size (age) of the hosts may be more or less a generalized phenomenon.

[12] reported that the fish catostomus commersoni in the 5 and 5+ year classes had the heaviest infection of Glaridacris catostomi. [23] reported that the prevalence and mean intensity of Glaridacris castostami increased as host length increased.  [10] found the number of Caryophyllidlaeus simriceps decreased as carp become older and suggested that this was due to age-related immunity. [28] reported that prevalence of Capillaria laticeps decreased with age of chubb, Leuciscus idus and attributed this decrease to the non-benthic habits of older fish. However, [9] and [29] both working with P. laevis, and Muzzaill (1980b) working with P. bulbocolli, found that acanthoception mean intensity increased with host age and size. [33] reported that prevalence and mean intensity of K. iowensis increased as fish length increased.

Effect of Host sex

Host sex was not found to be a significant factor in determining the infection rate of Phyllodistomum mansari, Allocreadium  A. gachuai, Genarchopsis G. piscicola, Ancistrocephalus sp, and Camallanus jammuensis.  Similar results were reported by [12] [22-23] and [33].

CONSENT AND ETHICAL APPROVAL

As per university standard guidelines, participant consent and ethical approval have been collected and preserved by the authors

Competing interests

Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS

The authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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