STUDIES ON EXPERIMENTAL TREMATODE INFECTION IN FISH

Abstract

The rapidly growing population m Egypt and the accompanied demand for an available source of animal protein, urged the government to encourage fish farms. Fish represent one of the best nutritious, relatively cheap food stuff, if compared with other animal sources. In Egypt, fresh water fish were found to be infected with trematode metacercariae that are transmittable to mammals and fish eating birds.

Fish pathogens may only cause problems when fish are weakened by some predisposing factors. Therefore it is essentially important to fmd out such factors and control them through programs of good management, and this will lead to the production of an annual healthy fish population.

In the present study, Prohemistomum vivax was chosen as a model of a trematode parasite the metacercariae of which was frequently reported in the skeletal muscles ofNile fishes and the adult inhabit the intestine of fish eating birds and mammals including man. This parasite was reported to harm both its final and intermediate hosts.