Parasite infections of Pseudocrenilabrus philander and Barbus paludinosus from a RAMSAR wetland in South Africa
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Barberspan Bird Sanctuary, a RAMSAR wetland of international importance, is situated in the North-West province of South Africa. Fish parasites have previously been recorded from many of the larger fish species from this locality but a paucity of information is available on parasites of the smaller fish species. Pseudocrenilabrus philander (Weber, 1897) and Barbus paludinosus (Peters, 1852) were collected during October 2014 and March 2015 using small fyke nets, seine nets and electrofishing techniques. Collected fishes were comprehensively screened for metazoan parasites. Pseudocrenilabrus philander was found to be parasitised by Gryporhynchidae cestode larvae with prevalences of 77% and 67% in October 2014 and March 2015 respectively, with the intensity of infection (IF) ranging from 1 to 11 specimens per host. These cestodes were represented by 5 different species - Paradilepis scolesina (Rudolphi, 1819), Paradilepis sp., Valipora campylancristrota (Wedell, 1855), Parvitaenia sp. 1 and Parvitaenia sp. 2. Nematode larvae and cysts with metecercaria were also found in the mesenteria of a few specimens of P. philander. During March 2015, Gyrodactylus sp. (47% prevalence) and Lernea sp. (6% prevalence) ectoparasites of P. philander were also recorded. Only ectoparasites were collected from B. paludinosus during both sampling periods. Monogeneans of Dactylogyrus spp. were present in prevalences of 100% (2014) and 53% (2015), respectively, with IF ranging from 2 to 18 specimens. Moreover, Myxozoan plasmodiums, Dolops sp. and Ergasilus sp. were also found on this small Barbus cyprinid. This is the first study reporting parasite biodiversity of small fishes from this RAMSAR wetland. |
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