Paratrichodina africana (Ciliophora: Trichodinidae) of wild and cultured Nile tilapia in the Northern Brazil.

• Autor(a) principal: TAVARES-DIAS, M.
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: MARCHIORI, N. da C., MARTINS, M. L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da EMBRAPA (Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from EMBRAPA - Alice)
• Texto Completo: http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/alice/handle/doc/961413
• topic: Animal parasite; Fresh water fish; Parasito animal; Peixe de água doce

The present work morphologically characterizes Paratrichodina africana from the gills of wild and farmed Nile tilapia from Northern Brazil (eastern Amazonia). Ninety fish were captured for parasitological analysis in Macapá, State of Amapá, from a wetland area bathed by the Amazon River commonly called ?Ressaca do Zerão? (n = 52), as well as from a local fish farm (n = 38). Wet smears of the skin and gills of the captured fish were air dried at room temperature and impregnated with silver nitrate by Klein?s method for posterior examination of the adhesive disc structures. Total prevalence of parasitism was 16.6% (23% in fish from wetland and 7.8% in farmed fish). Characterized as a small‑sized trichodinid, it presented the following measures: 33.2 ± 4.7 μm body diameter, 17.5 ± 2.1 μm adhesive disc, 10.0 ± 0.9 μm denticulate ring, and 22.6 ± 2.0 denticles. Paratrichodina africana reported in this study strongly resembles those described for other localities, but it differs by presenting greater body length. This is the fourth report of P. africana parasitizing a host fish.