Abstract

Helminths and Crustaceans Copepod Parasites of Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (Valenciennes, 1844)): Population of the Lak of Fouarate, Kenitra (Morocco)

Author(s): Latifa El Harrak, Kaoutar Houri, Hafida Jaghror, Mohammed Izougarhane, Ahmed Omar Touhami Ahami and Mohamed Fadli

In Asian,Asian carp has been introduced in different water accumulations in the world for the production of animal protein or for environmental objectives. However, many parasites have benefited from the operation to conquer many countries and continue to threaten the species itself, and be a risk to humans. In this work, we determined the parasitic species Helminths and Copepod (Crustacean) infesting a population of silver carp of the lake Fouarate nearby the city of Kenitra (Morocco). The results show that four helminths (Clonorchis sinensis, Diplostomum spathaceum, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi, Anisakis simplex, Dactylogyrus Sp) and a copepod crustacean (Lerneae Sp) parasitize the muscle, the intestine, the skin, the eyes or the gills of the studied fish. The contamination of the lake by sewage and the important diversity of the parasitized body parts can be two main causes of the specific wealth of the parasite population. A. simplex has the highest prevalence (19.33%) followed by that of Lerneae (16%). The prevalence of other parasites varies from 7.33%to 10%. Similarly, the fishes having a large size were more attacked by parasites except for Lerneae which has shown an inverse phenomenon.