Parasites Taxa in Some Sites of Euphrates River in Al-Najaf Province, Iraq

This parasite investigation has been carried out at three different places along the Euphrates River. Water and parasite samples were collected at half-monthly intervals between November 2021 and January 2022, with samples taken every two weeks. Some chemical and physical factors of water were examined. The results showed that total dissolved solids (TDS) ranged from 460 to 1212 mg L-1, total suspended solids (TSS) 5 to 450 mg L-1, salinity (S‰) 0.37 ppt to 1.5 ppt, electrical conductivity (EC) 1120 μs cm-1 to 3050 μs cm-1, and pH 6.5 to 9. In the case of parasites, 12 taxa were identified. According to the Shannon–Wiener index, parasite species diversity ranged from 0.2 to 0.76 bits/individual, depending on the parasite type. According to Jaccard similarity index, the highest degree of similarity was found between site one and site two, with 0.75% of the total.