A SURVEY OF HELMINTH PARASITES OF Clarias gariepinus FROM RIVER NIGER AT ILLUSHI, EDO STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

Although there are some reports on parasites of fish at different locations on River Niger, there had been just a few work done for Illushi with a little been published. Parasitological investigation fish belonging to the genus Clarias from River Niger at Illushi was conducted between the months of March and June, 2017 to determine the abundance and prevalence of helminth parasites infection. The fish were bought from local fisherman who used nets, hooks and lines to capture the fish. A total of 40 fish of Clarias gareipinus were examined which showed an overall infection rate of 40%. The gills and stomach were found to be infected with no infection recorded for the brain. Cestodes, trematodes and nematodes were recovered in decreasing order of abundance. Proteocephalus sp. was the cestode recovered from the intestine. Nematode – Paracamallanus cyathopharynx and trematode – Allocreadium sp. were also recovered. Male specimens (20) presented a higher rate of infection (50%) than female specimen (20) which showed an infection rate for 30%. It was observed that the smaller fish were susceptible to parasitic infection than larger ones with those of length 24.0 – 28.9cm and 29.0 – 33.9cm total length recorded a higher infection of 14.6% and 68.2% respectively. The lowest of 2.4% infection rate was observed in fish with 39.0-43.9 cm total length. The study showed the intestine as the preferred organ for infection.