Advantages And Disadvantages Of Parasites

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Parasite (s)
Introduction: A parasite is an organism which lives on/in a host organism and gets its food and makes its living at the host’s expense. Parasites can cause disease in humans and animals. Some parasitic diseases are easily treated while treating others is not that easy. In regard to the size, parasites range from one-celled microscopic organisms (protozoa) to quite large organisms which could be seen by naked eye (worms).
Mode of infection: The infection with parasitic diseases varies depending on the parasite itself and its life cycle. Hence, some infection occurs through drinking, coming in contact with polluted water, through eating carried by vectors, or through pets or wild animals.
Water-related parasitic diseases: This group …show more content…

An obligate parasite depends entirely upon a host for its nourishment, reproduction, habitat, and survival, if a parasite cannot obtain a host, it will fail to reproduce. A facultative parasite is an organism that lives independent and does not rely on its host to continue its life-cycle.
Fish parasites
Depending on their location, parasites can be internal (endoparasites) or external (ectoparasites). Internal parasites such as philometrid nematode could be found in the ovary of blacktip grouper or the parasites that live within the gill bone (e.g. trichosomoidid nematodes of the genus Huffmanela). More internal parasites include intestine/muscle parasites such as tapeworms, round worms and flukes or under skin (fluke).
External parasites includes copepods that may attach to mouth or gills, anchor worm (Lernea) that buries anchor-shaped head into fish, eye fluke that cause popeye. Fish gills are also preferred habitat of many external parasites, attached to the gill but living out of it. The most common are monogeneans and certain groups of parasitic copepods and …show more content…

Also, farming practices such as sampling, harvesting, crowding and others that may stress the fish and make them more susceptible to parasite infestations. Regarding the water quality, the main parameters may play an important role in the overall fitness of farmed fish and so may increase the susceptibility of fish to the diseases. For example, fish exposed to low dissolved oxygen or high ammonia are most likely to become more vulnerable to parasitic invasion while fish living under optimum conditions of water quality and are fed on high quality feed could tolerate and survive such

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