LIGHT AND SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDIES OF ECHINORHYNCHUS GADI INFECTING THE EUROPEAN EEL ANGUILLA ANGUILLA IN EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.+

2 Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

3 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Egypt.

Abstract

Fish are important to man as a good source of protein in man’s diet and as source of some zoonotic pathogens. This study investigated the helminthes infecting the European eel Anguilla anguilla that collected from Red Sea, Egypt. Only acanthocephala parasite was recovered from the intestine of infected fish with prevalence of 12.5%. The infection was analyzed according to the seasonal prevalence and showed the highest rate during winter rather than the lowest one
during summer. Morphological and morphometric analyses for the parasite species revealed that it possess all the characteristic features of the genus Echinorhynchus, but closely related to Echinorhynchus gadi described by Müller (1776). Future molecular studies are recommended for this parasite in order to clarify the actual systematic position.

Keywords