Diversity of intestinal helminth communities of carp from six lakes in the flood plain of the Yangtze River, China

Abstract

The infra‐ and component communities of intestinal helminths of carp Cyprinus carpio were investigated in six lakes in the flood plain of the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China. Eight species of helminth parasites were recorded. The intestinal helminth communities were species rich in Niushan and Tonghu lakes where the digenean Asymphylodora japonica was the dominant species, whereas in Qinggang and Yanglan lakes a species‐poor helminth community had only one species, Khawia sinensis. The degree of similarity within localities was highest in Qinggang and Yanglan lakes, and was high between communities where K. sinensis was the dominant species. The rich composition of these helminth communities may be because China is the heartland for carp while the poor helminth composition of those in Qinggang and Yanglan lakes may reflect the poor fauna there. It is suggested that species compositions of intestinal helminth communities of carp may be diversified in lakes in the flood plain of the Yangtze River.

Communities of gastrointestinal helminths of fish in historically connected habitats: habitat fragmentation effect in a carnivorous catfish Pelteobagrus fulvidraco from seven lakes in flood plain of the Yangtze River, China

“…Allogenic parasites have not previously been reported in this catfish [ 19 ], although body cavities and other organs of this fish were not examined in the present study. In a previous study, also carried in the flood-plain lakes, the parasites found in the common carp Cyprinus carpio were all autogenic [ 20 ]. Indeed, allogenic parasites, e.g.…”

“…Autogenic species are considered to have a highly patchy distribution and to be more unpredictable in occurrence than allogenic [ 7 , 21 ], which may lead to the low similarities of parasite communities, as observed in the present study and reported by Esch et al [ 7 ]. Nie et al [ 20 ] also detected a low level of similarity between helminth communities of common carp. However, in other systems, similarities are normally higher; for example the quantitative similarity was high from 0.39 to 0.93 (mean = 0.65 ± 0.03) in whitefish in a group of lakes in Alberta, Canada, and from 0.39 to 0.94 (mean = 0.70 ± 0.04) in lakes in Finland, with the domination of specialists [ 22 , 23 ].…”

“…The mean Brillouin's index of gastrointestinal helminth communities in the carnivorous catfish (0.39) was apparently higher than that (less than 0.16) in another omnivorous European eel Anguilla anguilla [ 32 - 34 ], and brown trout Salmo trutta [ 35 , 36 ]. Indeed, the Brillouin's index and the species richness of intestinal helminth communities were rather low (from 0 to 0.41 and 1 to 7, respectively) in the common carp Cyprinus carpio in flood-plain lakes of the river, which is omnivorous and feeds mainly on invertebrates and plant matters [ 20 ]. The majority of digeneans in the component communities can be attributed to the lacustrine and macrophytic environment which may provide habitats for mollusc intermediate hosts and thus transmission of digeneans, although detailed information on molluscan species composition and abundance is not available.…”