Abstract This paper presents the second manuscript prepared from the thesis dataset on cestode parasites of freshwater fishes from Chorakhali Dam, Osmanabad District. While the companion paper focuses on taxonomy, prevalence and seasonality, this paper uses the physiological and pathological half of the data: biochemical composition of recovered cestodes, intestinal histopathology, haematological response of infected hosts, worm burden and correlation-based health interpretation. Protein, lipid, glycogen and total carbohydrate contents were highest in Senga sp. (3h. 62, 14. 2S, 9. 46 and 13. 42 mug wet weight, respectively), followed by Circumoncobothriuln sp. and Lytocestus sp. Histopathological assessment showed maximum lesion severity in Channa striata, with villus erosion score 2. S, inflammation score 3. 0 and total lesion score 9. 9. Haematology indicated infection-associated stress, with haemoglobin decreasing from 9. h4 to 7. 36 g/dL, RBC count decreasing from 2. 3 1 to 1. 72 x l0⁶/mm3 and WBC count increasing from 19. 6 to 26. 9 x l0³/mm3. ESR increased by 110. 7%, indicating strong inflammatory response. ANOVA showed signiticant differences among parasite taxa for protein, lipid, glycogen and total carbohydrate, while correlation analysis showed a strong relationship between worm burden and lesion score (r = 0. 87). The paper concludes that cestode infection in Chorakhali Dam fishes has measurable biochemical and systemic health effects and should be monitored as a fish-health management issue.
Khune et al. (Thu,) studied this question.