COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PROTOZOAN PARASITE COMMUNITIES BETWEEN ANABAS TESTUDINEUS AND CHANNA PUNCTATUS

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the comparative occurrence of
protozoan parasites of two host species- Anabas testudineus and Channa punctatus.
The host fishes were collected from April, 2018 to March, 2019 from freshwater
bodies of Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Faridpur and Jashore districts of
Bangladesh. Three species of myxozoa (Henneguya mystusia, Henneguya qadrii and
Henneguya acerinae) and four genera/species of ciliophora (Trichodina acuta,
Trichodina sp., Epistylis lwoffi and Amphileptus disciformis) in A. testudineus; three
genera/species of myxozoa (Henneguya chaudhuryi, Henneguya bengalensis and
Myxobolus sp.), three species of ciliophora (Trichodina pediculus, Epistylis lwoffi
and Apisoma piscicolum) and a few actinosporean stage of myxoza in C. punctatus
were identified. The prevalence of protozoan infections were found higher in A.
testudineus (76.19%) compare to C. punctatus (51.72%). However, mean intensity
was relatively higher in C. punctatus (95.93 ± 41.53) than that of A. testudineus
(71.38 ± 32.26). Myxozoans were clearly dominant group in both hosts. Multiple
parasitic infections were higher in A. testudineus. The highest parasitic infection
was observed in Mymensingh (100%) and lowest in Jashore (40%) in A.
testudineus, whereas it was highest in fish of Faridpur (100%) and lowest in
Mymensingh (33.33%) in C. punctatus. Shannon Diversity Indices indicated that
the parasite community was poorly diverged in both hosts of all study areas.
However, Simpson’s Diversity revealed that, parasites community was
moderately diverged in both hosts in Mymensingh and in other study areas they
were poorly diverged.