Prevalence of Internal Helminth Parasites of Fish in Gilgel-Gibe River and Three Selected Ponds in and Around Jimma Town, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

In the current study, 308 Oreochromis niloticus and 76 Barbus species were subjected to standard postmortem and parasitological examinations. Of them, 30.9% of fish harbored at least one or more helminth parasites in their kidney, pericardial and brachial cavity. Parasite genera identified were Contracaecum (18.5%) Clinostomum (6.5%) and Euclinostomum (3.9%). The overall prevalence in O. niloticus was 38.6% but no parasite was identified in Barbus species. Despite higher prevalence was recorded in O. niloticus collected from Seka-Chekorsa pond (57.1%) and the least from Furustale ponds (30.9%), there was no statistical significance variation (P>0.05) among fishes collected from different ponds and Gilgel-Gibe River. Statistically significant differences were recorded among the different age groups of O. niloticus (χ2 = 12.1, Df= 3; P<0.05), with high prevalence in fingerlings (55.5%) and juvenile (53.1%) as compared to young (36.5%) and adult fish (29.4%). In conclusion, fish parasitism constitutes a huge health threat to O. niloticus. Lastly, the current study revealed that Barbus species showed some resistance for parasitic helminthes at least identified in this study. Therefore, detailed study in Barbus immunity against the mentioned helminthes and awareness creation on the overall fish management is recommended.