New hosts and distribution records of Braga patagonica, a parasite cymothoidae of fishes from the Amazon
Data de publicação: 17/07/2014
Specimens of Braga patagonica Schiödte & Meinert, 1884 (Isopoda: Cymothoidae) from freshwater fishes deposited in Ichthyological Collection of Amazon National Research Institute (INPA), in central Amazon and from fishes from eastern Amazon (Brazil) were investigated. Prevalence, infection intensity and body measures of B. patagonicafor different populations of this cymothoid in wild fishes species from Amazon were carried out. Four species of Serrasalmidae, one Characidae, one Cichlidae, one Cynodontidae, one Curimatidae, one Acestrorhynchidae and one Sciaenidae were recorded as new hosts for B. patagonicain the Amazon. This study indicates a low intensity and low parasitic specificity of B. patagonica, and also recorded the first parasitism by this ectoparasite in farmed Colossoma macropomum, describing its highly pathogenic effect.