MOLECULAR AND MORPHOLOGIC STUDY OF Clinostomum complanatum (DIGENEA CLINOSTOMIDAE) IN Garra rufa (DOCTOR FISH) FROM SOUTHERN TURKEY

Clinostomum complanatum is a zoonotic parasite and can cause economic losses in fish farms. The parasite has been mostly reported in freshwater fish species but not in Garra rufa (Doctor fish) which is getting more popular for fish spa. This is the first report of yellow grub trematode C. complanatum infected with doctor fish (G. rufa) in the Southern Turkey. A total of 40 dead G. rufa, which were taken from a commercial firm, were examined. The parasite from fish were confirmed by morphologically and molecular methods (PCR and sequencing) using nuclear internal transcribed spacer gene marker (ITS 1). G. rufa were found to be infected by C. complanatum, with prevalence 90.0%, and a mean intensity of the infection 19.8. We observed that C. complanatum metacercariae were in the encysted form and excysted form in the infected fish, and the diameter of the metacercarial cysts was found to be between 0.15-2.3 mm. The parasites were measured as mean body length 4079±861 μm, mean body width 1463±244 μm, mean body length/body width 2.81±0.47. Internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) gene were amplified for sequence and phylogenetic analyses and those sequences of metacercariae were also similar to the respective C. complanatum sequences in GenBank. Therefore, this study described the morphological characterization and molecular identification of C. complanatum for the first time from Garra rufa in Southern Turkey.