The diversity of teleost fish trematodes in the Bay of Bizerte, Tunisia (Western Mediterranean)

Abstract

A total of 39 digeneans species allocated to 28 genera in 12 families were recovered from 534 fishes belonging to 14 species in three families (Carangidae, Mullidae and Sparidae) collected in the Bay of Bizerte off the coast of Tunisia. We provide a host-parasite list of records from this locality, including 63 host-parasite combinations. The Opecoelidae Ozaki, 1925 is the most diverse group with 12 species. The species richness of individual digenean genera in the Bay of Bizerte ranges from 1 – 6 species. The mean number of 2.58 species per host indicates a relatively high digenean diversity in the Bay of Bizerte, which is related to its geographical location, its connection with the neighbouring Bizerte Lagoon and the nature of the bottoms of the littoral marine areas off the northern Tunisian coasts. This diversity is significantly higher than that reported off the southern coast of Tunisia and distinctly lower than that observed for teleost hosts in the Scandola Nature Reserve off Corsica. Generally, the levels of infection in teleosts fishes from the Bay of Bizerte are lower than those from the other two localities.