Spread of Tylodelphys mashonense (digenea: diplostomidae) by grey heron Ardea cinerea and great white egret a. Alba in Lake Victoria, Tanzania

Abstract

Despite the fact that  Tylodelphys mashonense, parasites of the cranial cavity of the catfish  Clarias gariepinus, are ubiquitous in freshwater systems, little is known on their spread. As such, we examined a total of 152 piscivorous birds, belonging to 6 species; 43 great cormorant  Phalacrocorax carbo, 33 grey heron  Ardea cinerea, 26 hamerkop  Scopus umbretta, 22 great white egret  Ardea alba, 15 marabou stork  Leptoptilos crumeniferus  and 13 pied kingfisher  Ceryle rudis  foraging in the Lake Victoria. Out of the six bird species only  A. cinerea  and  A. alba  were found infected by  T. mashonense  with prevalence of 42.4% and 9.1%, respectively. These findings report  T. mashonense  in  A. alba  for the first time and its occurrence in  A. cinerea  in Tanzania is the first record outside Zimbabwe.

Keywords: Ardeidae,  Ardea cinerea,  Ardea alba, intestinal digeneans