Occurrence of whirling disease symptoms in cultured common carp in Basrah, Iraq

Abstract

A total of 128 fish samples including 70 Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758, 10 Leuciscus vorax (Heckel, 1843), 40 Oreochromis aureus (Steindachner, 1864) and eight Planiliza abu (Heckel, 1843) were collected during the period from November 2016 to May 2017. Seven different localities (floating cages, earthen ponds and natural water) in Basrah were investigated. Among some detected fish diseases, whirling disease symptoms was reported for the first time in Iraq in April 2017, from two C. carpio cultured in earthen fish ponds of Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah. The infested fish were dwarfed, with abnormal big head and small body. Grossly signs of the diseases represent fins and tail deformities in addition to open ulcers and losing of scales, and necrosis of skin and muscles. Internally, fish suffered of muscles ecchymosis and vertebral deformities. Histological sections revealed that the spinal cord had healthy structure.

Checklists of Carp Parasites in Floating Cages of Iraq

“…Myxobolus sp. 2 was ascertained from C. carpio from earthen ponds of the Marine Science Centre, University of Basrah (Al-Nowfal et al, 2018). This parasite was referred to as whirling disease agent (usually caused by the myxozoan M. cerebralis) from C. carpio from earthen ponds of Marine Science Centre (Al-Nowfal, 2017).…”

“…This parasite was referred to as whirling disease agent (usually caused by the myxozoan M. cerebralis) from C. carpio from earthen ponds of Marine Science Centre (Al-Nowfal, 2017). However, the identification of the parasite was not confirmed (Al-Nowfal, 2017;Al-Nowfal et al, 2018).…”

“…Diplostomum spathaceum (as metacercaria) was reported as the agent of diplostomiasis in C. carpio from fish cages at Al-Masshab River, northeast of Al-Hammar Marsh, Basrah Province (Al-Nowfal, 2017;Al-Nowfal et al, 2019). This parasite was recorded for the first time in Iraq from the eyes of C. luteus (reported as B. luteus), Cyprinion macrostomum and C. carpio from Dokan Lake (Abdullah, 1990).…”

“…It is obvious from the above host-parasite list that C. carpio was infected with the highest number (57) of parasite species, followed by C. idella (four species) and H. molitris (one species). This variance in number of parasite species is attributed to the fact that all the surveyed literature on the parasitic fauna of cage fishes in Iraq (18 references) covered C. carpio (Ali et al, 1988a;Al-Taei, 2013;Eassa et al, 2014;Al-Jubouri et al, 2017;Al-Nowfal, 2017;Al-Turaihi and Al-Rudainy, 2017;Jawdhira et al, 2017;Al-Nowfal et al, 2018;Al-Turaihi, 2018;Hussein, 2018;Al-Nowfal et al, 2019;Al-Sahlany, 2019;Al-Salami, 2019;Al-Salami and Al-Saadi, 2019;Hussain, 2019;Khamees et al, 2019;Al-Sahlany et al, 2020;Hussein et al, 2021), while only one reference covered both C. idella and H. molitrix (Ali et al, 1988a).…”

“…Few surveys were conducted on parasites of some cage fishes in Iraq. These included those from Al-Habbaniyah Lake at Al-Anbar Province (Ali et al, 1988a), Babylon Province (Al-Taei, 2013;Al-Jubouri et al, 2017;Al-Turaihi and Al-Rudainy, 2017;Jawdhira et al, 2017;Al-Turaihi, 2018;Hussein, 2018;Hussain, 2019;Hussein et al, 2021), Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Province (Al-Salami, 2019;Al-Salami and Al-Saadi, 2019), Thi Qar Province (Al-Sahlany, 2019;Al-Sahlany et al, 2020) and Basrah Province (Eassa et al, 2014;Al-Nowfal, 2017;Al-Nowfal et al, 2018Khamees et al, 2019). It is reliable to state here that no parasitic infections were reported from fishes in floating cages during a three-year's (2014)(2015)(2016) survey in different areas of Basrah Province (Jassim, 2019).…”