PREVALENCE OF INTESTINAL HELMINTH PARASITES OF CLARIAS GARIEPINUS IN ZOBE RESEVOIR DUTSIN-MA, KATSINA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Parasites in the wild will cause morbidity, mortality, economic losses and zoonotic problems in the study area, if left unchecked. Clarias gariepinusis an important commercial fish in the Zobe reservoir, however, parasites causes profound pathological changes which lowers the growth considerably and affect the quality of the fish and often leads to death of fish, resulting in enormous economic losses to the fish industry Geetet al, (1999). This study isolated and identified intestinal helminth parasite in zobe reservoir and it has also determined prevalence of intestinal helminth parasite in relation to sex of clarias gariepinus in zobe reservoir.A total thirty (30) live fish sample were used in this study,the intestinal helminthparasites were identified morphologically and parasitologically using standard identification keys and pictorial guides Kabata, (1985) and Pouderet al, (2005).The fishes were opened dorso-ventrally by used of razor blade and the alimentary canals were removed, and the intestine were sorted and cut into parts kept in different plate contained 0.9% saline solution for parasites recovery,the recovered helminth parasites were taken by the camera for further identification. The parasite isolated were; five(5) Monobothriumsp which are cestoda, two(2) Capillariaspwhich are nematode and (6)Ascaris eggs which are also nematode, with a total of thirteen helminth parasites, the findings of this study showed low prevalence of intestinal helminth in the intestine of Clarias gariepinus in study area