The Asian fish tapeworm, Schyzocotyle acheilognathi (Yamaguti, 1934) (Cestoda: Bothriocephalidea), is an invasive parasite of freshwater fishes that have been reported from more than 200 freshwater fish worldwide. It was originally described from a small cyprinid, Acheilognathus rombeus, in Japan but then has spread, usually with carp, minnows or guppies, to all continents including isolated islands such as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba or Sri Lanka. In the present account, we report the first case of the infection of a native cichlid fish, Ptychochromis cf. inornatus (Perciformes: Cichlidae), endemic to Madagascar, with S. acheilognathi. The way of introduction of this parasite to the island, which is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, is briefly discussed.

Department of Animal Biology Faculty of Science University of Antananarivo Antananarivo BP 906 Antananarivo 101 Madagascar

Department of Botany and Zoology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Branišovská 31 370 05 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

BAUER O.N., MUSSELIUS V.A., STRELKOV Y.A. Diseases of Pond Fishes. Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Programme for Scientific Translations; 1973. p. 220.

BENSTEAD J.P., DE RHAM P.H GATTOLLIAT, J.-L., GIBON F.-M., LOISELLE P.V., SARTORI M., SPARKS J.S STIASSNY, M.L.J.. Conserving Madagascar’s freshwater biodiversity. BioScience. 2003;53:1101–1111. doi: 10.1641/0006-3568(2003)053[1101:CMFB]2.0.CO;2. DOI

BRABEC J., KUCHTA R., SCHOLZ T., LITTLEWOOD D.T.J.. Paralogues of nuclear ribosomal genes conceal phylogenetic signal within the invasive Asian fish tapeworm lineage: evidence from next generation sequencing data. Int. J. Parasitol. 2016;46:555–562. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2016.03.009. PubMed DOI

BRABEC J., WAESCHENBACH A., SCHOLZ T., LITTLEWOOD D.T.J., KUCH-TA R.. Molecular phylogeny of the Bothriocephalidea (Cestoda): molecular data challenge morphological classification. Int. J. Parasitol. 2015;45:761–771. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2015.05.006. PubMed DOI

CHOUDHURY A., CHARIPAR E., NELSON P., HODGSON J.R., BONAR S., COLE R.A.. Update on the distribution of the invasive Asian fish tapeworm, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi in the U.S. and Canada. Comp. Parasitol. 2006;73:269–273. doi: 10.1654/4240.1. doi: 10.1071/MF96069. DOVE, A.D.M., CRIBB, T.H., MOCKLER, S.P., LINTERMANS, M. (1997): The Asian fish tapeworm, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi in Australian freshwater fishes. Mar. Freshw. Res 48: 181–183. DOI

FONT W. F.. The global spread of parasites: what do Hawaiian streams tell us? Bioscience. 2003;53:1061–1067.

GIBSON D.I., BRAY R.A., HARRIS E.A. Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London. World Wide Web electronic publication. 2005. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/taxonomy-systematics/host-parasites/ Compilers.

HOBBES J., DOLAN A. World Regional Geography 6th edition. Belmont, California, USA: Cengage Learning; 2008. p. 752.

KHALIL L.F., POLLING L. Check List of the Helminth Parasites of African Freshwater Fish. Pietersburg: South Africa, University of the North; 1997. p. 185. 2nd edition.

KIENER A.. Poissons, pêche et pisciculture à Madagascar. Publ. Centre Techn. For. Trop. 1963;24:244. pp.

KUCHTA R., BURIANOVÁ A., JIRKŮ M., DE CHAMBRIER A., OROS M., BRABEC J., SCHOLZ T.. Bothriocephalidean tapeworms (Cestoda) of freshwater fish in Africa, including erection of Kirstenella n. gen. and description of Tetracampos martinae n. sp. Zootaxa. 2012;3309:1–35.

KUCHTA R., SCHOLZ T., BRAY R.A.. Revision of the order Bothriocephalidea Kuchta, Scholz, Brabec & Bray, 2008 (Eucestoda) with amended generic diagnoses and keys to families and genera. Syst. Parasitol. 2008;71:81–136. doi: 10.1007/s11230-008-9153-7. PubMed DOI

LÉVÊQUE C. Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation: The Freshwater Fish of Tropical Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1997. p. 438.

MENDLOVÁ M, DESDEVISES Y, CIVÁŇOVÁ K, PARISELLE A, ŠIMKOVÁ A.. Monogeneans of West African cichlid fish: evolution and cophylogenetic interaction. PLoS ONE. 2012;7:e37268. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037268. PubMed DOI PMC

OGBULIE T.E., NWIGWE H.C., ANYADOH S.O.. Comparative assessment of bioload of healthy and diseased Oreochromis niloticus as means of food security. Anal. Univ. Oradea, Fasc. Biol. 2011;18:10–14.

OROS M., SCHOLZ T., HANZELOVÁ V., MACKIEWICZ J.S.. Scolex morphology of monozoic cestodes (Caryophyllidea) from the Palaeartctic Region: a useful tool for species identification. Folia Parasitol. 2010;57:37–46. doi: 10.14411/fp.2010.006. PubMed DOI

PAPERNA I. Parasites, Infections and Diseases of Fishes in Africa: An Update. CIFA Technical Paper; 1996.

POOL D.W., CHUBB J.C.. A critical scanning electron microscope study of the scolex of Bothriocephalus acheilognathi Yamaguti, 1934, with a review of the taxonomic history of the genus Bothriocephalus parasitizing cyprinid fishes. Syst. Parasitol. 1985;7:199–211. doi: 10.1007/BF00011451. DOI

ROSEMARY G.G., CLAGUE D.A.. Encyclopedia of Islands. Berkeley, USA, University of California Press, 1075 pp. SCHOLZ, T. (1999): Parasites in cultured and feral fish. Vet. Parasitol. 2009;84:317–335. doi: 10.1023/A:1006120500518. PubMed DOI

SCHOLZ T., KUCHTA R., WILLIAMS C. WOO P.T.K., BUCHMANN K. Fish Parasites. Pathobiology and Protection Chapter 18. Wallingford, UK: CAB International; 2012. Bothriocephalus achelognathi; pp. 282–297.

SPARKS J.S., SMITH W.L.. Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and South Asian cichlids (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae) Mol. Phyl. Evol. 2004;30:599–614. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2004.07.002. PubMed DOI

WILLIAMS H.H., JONES A. Parasitic Worms of Fishes. London & Bristol, UK, Taylor & Francis: 1994. p. 593.