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Intestinal histological alterations in farmed red-bellied pacu Piaractus brachypomus (Characiformes: Serrasalmidae) heavily infected by roundworms

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Abstract

The farmed red-bellied pacu Piaractus brachypomus is a valuative commercial fish widely exploited in fish farming. Histopathologic alterations in small intestine of this fish were associated with heavy roundworms infection. Of a total of thirty-five fish examined, all were parasitized with a prevalence of 100%, intensity of 290–6403, and mean intensity of infection of 4467.5 parasites per fish. According to the morphological features of whole nematodes examined using light and electronic microscopy, the parasite was identified as Rondonia rondoni Travassos. Rev Vet e Zoot 10, 59–70; 1920. The fish intestinal tissue alterations include fusion of villi, edema, disorganization of epithelial cells, epithelial abrasion, and flaking of the villus at mucosa layer level and submucosa layer with some regions of necrosis and lymphocyte infiltrate. This is the first report of histopathological alterations caused by infection of the atractid nematode R. rondoni in a farmed population of P. brachypomus in the Peruvian Amazon. The study points out the need of improving the strategies of parasitic prevention and control in order to better prevent future disease outbreaks.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank G.M. James for reviewing the English idiom.

Funding

N.L.S. Rivadeneyra and R.C. Cuadros thank Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica, CONCYTEC (Peru), for the financial support (grant no. 230-2015 FONDECYT) provided for the Master studies. P.D. Mathews thanks São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP, for the Post-Doc fellowship (grant no. 2018/20482-3).

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Correspondence to Patrick D. Mathews.

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All procedures in the present study were approved by the Federal University of São Paulo-UNIFESP Ethics Committee for scientific use of animals (CEUA No. 9209080214, Federal Law No. 11794, dated 8 October 2008), in accordance with international procedures.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Cuadros, R.C., Rivadeneyra, N.L.S., Flores-Gonzales, A. et al. Intestinal histological alterations in farmed red-bellied pacu Piaractus brachypomus (Characiformes: Serrasalmidae) heavily infected by roundworms. Aquacult Int 29, 989–998 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-021-00670-0

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