Prevalence of Piscean cestode, Mystoides chhaviensis in freshwater fish from Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India

The present investigation deals with the preliminary study of Piscean cestode parasites viz. Mystoides chhaviensis collected from the intestine of a freshwater fish, Channa punctatus (Bloch). The experiment was conducted between February 2018 and January 2020 and the samples were collected from different sites of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh during all the three seasons namely summer, monsoon and winter. The prevalence of infection was recorded maximum during winter season (0.180%), moderate in monsoon (0.129%) and lowest in summer (0.046%). The intensity of parasites varies as 1.256%, 1.107% and 1.10% during winter, monsoon and summer seasons respectively. Parasites showed a high degree of specialization and reproduced at a faster rate than their hosts. The parasitic worms are a crucial part of biodiversity on earth.