Molecular Taxonomic Studies on Some Helminth Parasites Infecting Certain Marine Fish

Abstract

This study was conducted on three different levels, the first level was to study some of the factors affecting the prevalence of the helminthes parasites such as fish type, fish gender and fish body weight. This investigation included fifteen different helminth parasites which were belongs to Nematoda, (six types), Cestodes, (six types) and Acanthocephala, (three types). The second level was to distinguish between these fifteen helminthes parasites under investigation morphologically using the light and scanning electron microscopes. The third level was to discriminate between some of these fifteen helminthes parasites under investigation which collected from Egyptian and Libyan coasts on the molecular level using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). The results indicated that in General, fish infection with helminthes was greater in the Egyptian coast than in the Libyan coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In relation between the fish gender and the prevalence of the helminth parasites, the results indicated that, the infection ratio over all the twelve different fish types under investigation was higher in males than in females in both of Egypt and Libya. In respect of the relation between fish body weight and the prevalence of helminthes parasites, the results indicated that, the infection ratio over all the twelve different fish types under investigation was higher in high fish body weight than in low fish body weight in both of Egypt and Libya. The results of helminthes morphological investigation using light and scanning electron microscope, this part of the study could help to know the characteristic features of each one of them, which can aid in the differentiation between the similar species.