Endoparasitic fauna of Serrasalmus spp. (Characidae: Serrasalminae) in a neotropical floodplain

Abstract

Floodplains systems present complex biodiversity and upper Paraná river floodplain retains a wide variety of terrestrial and aquatic species. Serrasalmus marginatus (nonindigenous species) and Serrasalmus maculatus (native species) are part of this biodiversity component and can be infected by trophic transmission. In order to understand the ecological processes within the upper Paraná river floodplain, endoparasite fauna of those two hosts species were analyzed, considering prevalence, abundance, intensity and richness variables to determine this relationship. So, abundance of acantocephalan Echinorhynchus sp. was positively correlated to S. marginatus length, while Kritskyia annakohnae (Monogenea) prevalence and S. marginatus length presented a negative correlation. S. marginatus relative condition factor (Kn) was negatively and significantly associated to the abundance of K. annakohnae, and Kn of infected fish by that species is lower compared with the non-infected fish. Since hosts are in the context of the introducing of species, the research of endoparasites ecological variables allows to understansd infracommunity and component community as a way of analyzing the consequence of these parasites distribution in the native and non-native species.