Occurrence of parasites in fish marketed in the Inezgane wholesale market and the fishing port of Agadir, Morocco

Abstract

Based on importance of animal products safety, the purpose of this work was to assess the extent of parasitism at the wholesale market level of Inezgane and the fishing port of Agadir in Morocco. For this purpose, fieldwork aimed at direct investigation of parasites involved 366 fish pieces. This study was conducted in the period between March and June 2021. The prevalence of parasitism was 20.76%. The total number of parasites collected is 2385 including 1959 nematodes, 318 xenomas, 92 cestodes, and 16 isopods. An abundance of 6.51 and an overall intensity of 31.38. These infestation parameters varied by species and location of origin. For the qualitative analysis of the parasites, the study revealed a predominance of L3 larvae of the Anisakis nematode with a percentage of 82.14%. Xenomas had a percentage of 13.33%. As for the cestodes of Gymnorhynchus gigas, the larvae were collected from the Atlantic pomfret (Brama brama) with a percentage of 3.86%. As a result of this study, a significant positive correlation of r=0.81 was shown between the total length of the fish and the number of anisakids. The results of this study revealed that the extent of parasitism seems to be less pronounced in some species, but there is still a presence of concern.