Diversity and parasitological assessment of Digenea species in Trachurus trachurus (Teleostei, Carangidae) from the Algerian coast, Western Mediterranean

K. Gharbi; A. Boukadoum; S. Amarache; F. Tazerouti

doi:10.2478/helm-2025-0026

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Diversity and parasitological assessment of Digenea species in Trachurus trachurus (Teleostei, Carangidae) from the Algerian coast, Western Mediterranean

Helminthologia

Volume 62 (2025): Issue 3 (September 2025)

By: K. Gharbi , A. Boukadoum , S. Amarache and F. Tazerouti

Open Access

|Nov 2025

Figures & Tables

Map of the Algerian sample collection sites. Main fishing ports along the Algerian coast (modified map).

The Digenea infesting *Trachurus trachurus* from the Algerian coastline *Ectenurus lepidus* (ventral view) (A); *Prodistomum polonii* (ventral view) (B); *Monascus filiformis* (ventral view) (C); *Ancylocoelium typicum* (ventral view) (D); *Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri* (ventral view) (E).

Table 1.

Parasitological parameters of the Digenea species from Trachurus trachurus.

Host	Parasites species	Number of hosts examined	Number of hosts infected	Number of parasites	Prevalence (P%)	Mean abundance (MA)	Intensity (MI)
*Trachurus trachurus*	*Ectenurus lepidus*	820	58	75	7.07	0.09	1.29
	*Prodistomum polonii*		39	159	4.76	0.19	4.08
	*Monascus filiformis*		161	541	19.63	0.66	3.36
	*Ancylocoelium typicum*		50	208	6	0.25	4.16
	*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*		11	17	1	0.02	1.55

Table 2.

Parasitic associations in Trachurus trachurus.

Species composition	Number of infected hosts		P%
Species composition	n	P %	P%
*M. filiformis*	100	44.05	71.37
*E. lepidus*	27	11.89
*P. polonii*	7	3.08
*A. typicum*	20	8.81
*P. chloroscombri*	8	3.52
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus*	13	5.73	19.38
*M. filiformis - P polonii*	12	5.29
*M. filiformis - A. typicum*	14	6.17
*M. filiformis - P chloroscombri*	1	0.44
*E. lepidus - A. typicum*	1	0.44
*P. polonii - A. typicum*	3	1.32
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus - P. polonii*	8	3.52	6.61
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus - A. typicum*	3	1.32
*M. filiformis - P. polonii - A. typicum*	4	1.76
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus - P. polonii - A. typicum*	4	1.76	2.64
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus - P. polonii - P. chloroscombri*	1	0.44
*M. filiformis - E. lepidus - A. typicum - P. chloroscombri*	1	0.44

Table 3.

Parasitism of Trachurus trachurus by Digenea across seasons.

Host	Seasons	Number of hosts examined	Number of hosts infected	Number of parasites	Prevalence (P%)	Mean abundance (MA)	Mean intensity (MI)
*Trachurus trachurus*	Autumn	24	7	19	29	0.79	2.71
	Winter	226	27	54	12	0.24	2.00
	Spring	505	181	858	36	1.70	4.74
	Summer	65	12	69	18	1.06	5.75

Table 4.

Parasitological parameters of the Digenea found in Trachurus trachurus by season.

Seasons		Autumn			Winter			Spring			Summer
Parasitological parameters		P%	MA	MI	P%	MA	MI	P%	MA	MI	P%	MA	MI
Parasites species	*Ectenurus lepidus*	25	0.38	1.50	2	0.03	1.20	8	0.11	1.31	8	0.08	1.00
	*Prodistomum polonii*	0	0.00	0.00	1	0.01	1.00	7	0.31	4.24	0	0.00	0.00
	*Monascus filiformis*	21	0.42	2.00	8	0.18	2.16	26	0.85	3.32	11	0.95	8.86
	*Ancylocoelium typicum*	0	0.00	0.00	0	0.00	0.00	10	0.41	4.29	3	0.03	1.00
	*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*	0	0.00	0.00	1	0.02	2.50	2	0.02	1.33	0	0.00	0.00

Table 5.

Analysis of seasonal variations in prevalence and abundance of digenea parasites in Trachurus trachurus using Chi-Square and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

	X²		Kruskal-Wallis
	Prevalence		Abundance
	X	P	H	P
*Ectenurus lepidus*	21.085	< 0.001*	21.348	< 0.001*
*Prodistomum polonii*	19.288	< 0.001*	19.41	< 0.001*
*Monascus filiformis*	32.638	< 0.001*	32.607	< 0.001*
*Ancylocoelium typicum*	27.51	< 0.001*	27.588	< 0.001*
*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*	2.307	0.511	2.293	0.514

1 p, significance level;

1* significant values p ≤ 0.05

Table 6.

Parasitism of Trachurus trachurus by Digenea across regions.

Host	Regions	Number of hosts examined	Number of hosts infected	Number of parasites	Prevalence (P%)	Mean abundance (MA)	Mean intensity (MI)
*Trachurus trachurus*	Center	726	209	953	29	1.31	4.56
	East	68	13	41	19	0.60	3.15
	West	26	5	6	19	0.23	1.20

Table 7.

Parasitological parameters of the Digenea found in Trachurus trachurus by regions.

Areas		Center			East			West
Parasitological parameters		P%	MA	MI	P%	MA	MI	P%	MA	MI
Parasites species	*Ectenurus lepidus*	7	0.09	1.31	3	0.03	1.00	15	0.19	1.25
	*Prodistomum polonii*	5	0.21	4.19	3	0.10	3.50	4	0.04	1.00
	*Monascus filiformis*	22	0.72	3.30	4	0.29	6.67	0	0.00	0.00
	*Ancylocoelium typicum*	6	0.27	4.80	13	0.16	1.22	0	0.00	0.00
	*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*	1	0.02	1.60	1	0.01	1.00	0	0.00	0.00

Table 8.

Analysis of regional variations in prevalence and abundance of digenea parasites in Trachurus trachurus using Chi-Square and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

	X²		Kruskal-Wallis
	Prevalence		Abundance
	X	P	H	P
*Ectenurus lepidus*	4.508	0.105	4.545	0.103
*Prodistomum polonii*	0.608	0.738	0.585	0.747
*Monascus filiformis*	18.423	< 0.001*	17.922	< 0.001*
*Ancylocoelium typicum*	7.996	0.018*	7.465	0.024*
*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*	0.369	0.831	0.368	0.832

1 p, significance level;

1* significant values p ≤ 0.05

Table 9.

The relationship between parasite load and Trachurus trachurus weight and size.

	Mean Abundance				Mean Intensity
	Weight (g)		Total length (cm)		Weight (g)		Total length (cm)
	r_s	p	r_s	p	r_s	p	r_s	p
*Monascus filiformis*	0.433	0.211	0.28	0.434	-0.306	0.306	-0.018	0.96
*Ectennrus lepidus*	-0.759	0.011*	0.049	0.894	-0.895	< 0.001**	-0.502	0.139
*Prodistomum polonii*	-0.792	0.006**	-0.234	0.515	-0.802	0.005**	-0.677	0.032*
*Ancylocoelium typicum*	-0.119	0.744	0.263	0.464	-0.615	0.059	0.138	0.705
*Pseudopecoeloides chloroscombri*	-0.768	0.009**	-0.314	0.377	-0.787	0.007**	-0.444	0.199

1 p, significance level;

1* significant values p ≤ 0.05

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2025-0026 | Journal eISSN: 1336-9083 | Journal ISSN: 0440-6605

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Language: English

Page range: 209 - 217

Submitted on: Mar 7, 2025

Accepted on: Aug 15, 2025

Published on: Nov 26, 2025

Published by: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: Volume open

Keywords:

Digenea,

Related subjects:

Zoology,

Ecology,

Life sciences, other,

Medicine,

Clinical medicine,

Microbiology, virology and infection epidemiology

© 2025 K. Gharbi, A. Boukadoum, S. Amarache, F. Tazerouti, published by Slovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 62 (2025): Issue 3 (September 2025)

Diversity and parasitological assessment of Digenea species in Trachurus trachurus (Teleostei, Carangidae) from the Algerian coast, Western Mediterranean

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Table 1.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Table 4.

Table 5.

Table 6.

Table 7.

Table 8.

Table 9.

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