Comparative study of the common protozoan parasites of 𝘊𝘭𝘒𝘳π˜ͺ𝘒𝘴 𝘨𝘒𝘳π˜ͺ𝘦𝘱π˜ͺ𝘯𝘢𝘴 (African catfish) from wild and cultured environments in Bauchi metropolis

16 PAGES (6391 WORDS) Zoology Project

This project work studied and compared the common protozoan parasites of Africa cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) from wild and cultured environment within Bauchi metropolis, a total of 48 samples of C. gariepinus comprising 24 each from both wild and cultured environment were examined for protozoan parasites and only 18 and 13 fishes were infected by protozoa parasites respectively. Ichthyophthirus multifiilis was the most common protozoan parasites found in C. gariepinus from the wild and Trichodina sp. is the most common found in the cultured environment. These protozoan parasites constituted 28.5% of total parasites encountered for fishes in the wild and 28.1% of fishes encounterd in both environment. Among the body parts of the sampled fishes from the wild and cultured environment, the gills had the highest parasites load. Fishes not infested by any protozoan parasites from the wild constituted 25% of the total fish sampled. On the other hand, fishes not infested with any protozoan parasites from the cultured environment constituted 45.8% of the total fish sampled. Female fishes had more protozoan parasite load than the male fishes. Bigger fishes of total length 25-50 cm had more parasite load than the smaller ones (19-24). Also, fishes between 951-1050 g had more parasite load than smaller ones of less than 750 g.