Prevalence of Ectoparasitic Infestation in Indian Major Carps During Winter at Different Blocks of South 24-Parganas District, West Bengal, India

The study was carried out to find the prevalence of ectoparasites in carp species specifically Indian Major Carps (IMC) during the post monsoon season (November’16 to March’17). Four groups of ectoparasites viz. myxozoan, ciliophoran, monogenean and crustacean were recorded from approximately 500 number of carp species like, Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Cirrhinus mrigala and Labeo calbasu collected from different ponds of selected blocks of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The highest prevalence (64.76%) of infestation had been recorded by Myxozoans and the lowest was by Monogeneans (4.79%). The highest and lowest ectoparasitic prevalence in carp was observed in L. rohita (32.88%) and C. catla (27.28%). At the end of this experiment it was concluded that sudden changes in water quality parameters, over stocking, lack of management practices and some other aspects were the key factors for disease occurrences in this post monsoon season.