Helminth communities of the Turkish endemic fish, Pseudophoxinus crassus (Ladiges, 1960): Four helminth parasites for a new host record

Abstract

Tuz Golu (Salt Lake) Basin is one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world and of extremely high biological importance owing to its high diversity and high level of endemism. It is hypothesized that the basin environment and the endemism of Pseudophoxinus crassus - a species of ray-finned fish in the Cyprinidae family and found only in Turkey - might contribute to the host-specific parasite characters. A total of 92 P. crassus specimens were collected by electrofishing between spring 2009 and autumn 2010 from the Incesu Stream in Konya Province, Turkey. By the end of the study period, four parasitic helminth species (Gyrodactylus latus, Asymphylodora imitans, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi and Pomphorhynchus laevis) were recorded. All had been reported previously from other hosts (non-host specific). Among these parasites G. latus and A. imitans are new records for the helminth fauna of Turkey. Prevalence and infestation intensity, length classes, and sex compositions of infested populations, as well as the seasonality of infestation were obtained and the results compared with other studies.