High Burden of Gastrointestinal Helminth Parasites in Catfishes: Clarias gariepinus and Heteropneustes fossilis

Abstract Objective: Catfishes harbour a greater variety and occurrence of larval helminth parasites because they are exposed to more infective helminth larvae in their diet due to their predatory habit which makes them more susceptible to higher parasitic burden. This study was conducted at department of zoology in Post Graduate Campus, Biratnagar, Nepal to determine the prevalence of helminth parasites in the gastrointestinal tract of two species of catfishes i.e Clarias gariepinus and Heteropneustes fossilis collected from the different water resources of Biratnagar, Eastern Nepal.Results: Out of 280 fish examination, 264 (94.28%) fishes were found to be infected with helminths parasites. Clarias gariepinus infection rate was 84.0% with three species of parasites, one each of nematode i.e. Procamallanus laevionchus, cestode i.e. Proteocephalus species, and trematode i.e. Allocreadium species. Heteropneustes fossilis have prevalence rate of 100% with five species of helminth parasites i.e. two nematode species namely Procamallanus heteropneustes and Eustrongyloides species, one cestode namely Lytocestus indicus, one trematode i.e. Phyllodystomum folium and an acanthocephalan i.e. Pomphorhynchus species were detected.