Investigations on Occurrence of Paradiplozoon spp from Vimbabream, Vimba vimba in Lake Köyceğiz Lake in Southwest Turkey with New Data on Distribution

Only one species of the genus Paradiplozoon(Akmerov 1974) has so far been recorded in Vimba vimba (Linnaeus, 1758) fromTürkiye. This study was planned to improve the recording of the occurrence ofdiplozoids in V. vimba from a pristine area in a different geographical region.A total of 397 specimens of V. vimba were collected from Lake Köyceğiz bycommercial fishermen over a period of one year and examined for the presence ofdiplozoids. Only one species of Paradiplozoon was found. Following a detailed morphologicalexamination, the species was identified as Paradiplozoon bliccae(Reichenbach-Klinke 1961), which was subsequently confirmed by molecular data.A total of 1025 specimens of P. bliccae infected 185 of the 397 Vimba vimba specimensexamined, with prevalence, mean intensity and abundance of 46.6%, 5.5 ± 4parasites/fish, 2.5,respectively. The highest prevalence and mean abundance weredetermined in spring, while mean intensity values were higher in summers.Female hosts showed higher prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance than males.Thisis the first report on the diplozoid P. bliccae from the locality and the firstmolecular characterization of P. bliccae from V. vimba in Lake Köyceğiz. Thisstudy adds to the geographical range of the species