Abstract
ABSTRACT This study investigated the parasite fauna in Piaractus brachypomus grown in fish farms in the state of Acre, in the western Brazilian Amazon. We examined 160 fish from four farms. Overall parasite prevalence was 66.9%. The fish were parasitized by Anacanthorus spathulatus, Mymarothecium viatorum, Anacanthorus penilabiatus, Clinostomum marginatum, Echinorhynchus jucundus and Henneguya sp., but monogenean species were the dominant parasites. Monogeneans showed an aggregated distribution pattern and there was a weak correlation between host size and abundance of M. viatorum and A. penilabiatus. No difference in the condition factor of parasitized and non-parasitized fish was detected. The fish of all farms had the gills parasitized by A. spathulatus and M. viatorum, but A. penilabiatus was found only in fish from two farms. Echinorhynchus jucundus, C. marginatum and Henneguya sp. were found in only one farm. The differences in parasitism level among the farms are attributable to differences in management and quality of cultivation environments.
Highlights
Aquaculture production is increasingly being considered as an answer to food security issues worldwide (FAO 2018)
In Brazil, fish farming turned into an economic activity in the 1990s, with the emergence and dissemination of management technologies aimed at the cultivation of native species, and the first large-scale fish farms began the fattening of these fish (Kubitza 2007; Franceschini et al 2013)
The body size of the sampled specimens of P. brachypomus varied among farms, as they were in different stages of culture
Summary
Aquaculture production is increasingly being considered as an answer to food security issues worldwide (FAO 2018). Piaractus brachypomus is the third largest scale fish from the Amazon basin, reaching up to 0.8 m in length and about 20 kg in weight. It presents attractive body characteristics for the consumer market, such as small head size, ease of flaking, as well as advantages for farming, such as rapid growth, resistance to high water temperatures and low levels of dissolved oxygen, and resistance to handling and diseases (Ribeiro et al 2016). The species is economically important and increasingly produced in fish farms in the state of Acre, CITE AS: Negreiros, L.P.; Tavares-Dias, M.
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