| Summary: | [EN] he cimotoids parasites are haematophagus ectoparasites that are located in different parts of the body of fish, the mouth being the location of these isopods that affects more the production of fish. These parasites are affecting cultured species, specially sea bream and sea bass, important species in the Mediterranean. This study aimed to assess the levels of infection of oral cimotoids in sea bass and to fish associated to the cages (bogue and blotched picarel) in the Western Mediterranean, to make a major taxonomic revision of the genus Ceratothoa and to evaluate their effects on the hosts. A total of 516 fish was analyzed: 141 bogue from the Mediterranean, which were infected with an overall prevalence of 0.71% (125 fish were additionally collected from the Northeast Atlantic being infected with a prevalence of 5.6%). Of the 355 blotched picarel collected from Western Mediterranean 27 were infected (i.e. a prevalence of 8.1%) however, none of the 20 sea bass studied appear to be infected in the Western Mediterranean. Thus, the infection levels detected in this geographical area indicate that this parasite does not seem a potential pathogen that could affect the production nowadays, however further monitoring should be done to avoid future infections. To determine the effect of Ceratothoa spp. on the hosts, fish morphological characteristics together with condition factors were analyzed. Generally the parasites appear to affect the mouth opening of both bogue and blotched picarel, however no effect was detected on the condition of the fish. On the other hand the morphological study performed to compare the head of the tree species of fish indicates that they are morphologically very different and thus, the effect on sea bass could not be inferred from the effect caused on bogue and blotched picarel. In addition, the morphological study has revealed that C. oestroides infects bogue, however, C. parallela appear to be infecting both bogue and blotched picarel. The present study has also demonstrated for ...
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