Early detection and determination of myxosporea in nile tilapia cultivation through histomorphological examination

The diseases and specific identity of the parasites infecting warm freshwater cultured fish are seldom known and at best only the genera are recorded. The lack of comprehensive investigations into the diseases encountered in cultured systems has resulted in the diagnosis of groups of parasitic species causing disease being less focused, thus, subsequent details of the diseases encountered in cultured systems are discussed under generic and other taxonomic groupings, rather under the specific pathogens in question. This study was conducted to detect and determine the presence of myxosporea in nile tilapia cultivation through histomorphological examination. Live nile tilapia from Surabaya cultivation were transferred to the laboratory of Parasitology as soon as possible and were done necropsy and several internal organs isolated included intestine. Then made histological preparations from intestinal tissue for histological examination with HE staining. Myxozoan Enteromyxum sp., a stage of an unidentified myxozoan observed attached to the brush-gut boundary of some fish. The degree of infection of the parasite, the so-called "myxosporean epithelium"was recorded, the parasite was observed only at the epi-epithelial position on the intestinal mucosa and never in the other tissues studied. Parasites were found in several parts of the intestine. Findings in the intestinal lumen are rare. No sporogonic stage could be detected on light microscopy. No parasites were observed in any of the other tissues studied, and no histopathological lesions caused by myxosporean epithelia were found. Enteromyxum sp. infects the digestive tract of fish, but there were no clear clinical symptoms from the observations of the body surface of the fish carried out, however the mucus fluid in the digestive tract and the thin intestinal wall is clearly visible.