Investigation of a parasitic outbreak of Lernaea cyprinacea Linnaeus (Crustacea: Copepoda) in Cyprinid fish from Choghakhor lagoon

The main objectives of this study were to study the parasitic infestation of lernaea cyprinacea in 4 cyprinids from the choghakhor lagoon, chaharmahal - bakhtyari province, west of iran. a total of 180 cyprinids including cyprinus carpio (n=101), carassius auratus (n=47), capoeta aculeata (n=10) and alburnus alburnus (n=22) caught, and were studied for lernaea cyprinacea infestation. prevalence (c. carpio 61.4, c. auratus 87.2, c. aculeata 70 and a. alburnus 68.2), intensity of infection (c. carpio range 1 to 5, mean 2.1; c. auratus range 1 to 6, mean 1.9; c. aculeata range 1 to 5, mean 2.4; a. alburnus range 1 to 2, mean 1.1), and abundance (c. carpio 1.3, c. auratus 1.6, c. aculeata 1.7 and a. alburnus 0.8) varied with the fish species. a statistically significant difference was found between infestation by l. cyprinacea and fish species (p=0.01), although no statistically significant difference was found between infestation and weight, length and age of the studied fishes (p > 0.05). the prevalence was also significantly different (p=0.0) in studying seasons. population dynamics of l. cyprinacea on fish hosts was studied. the results show that the preferred site of the parasite was body lateral surfaces followed by caudal , dorsal , pectoral and anal fins (p=0.0).