International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies 2016; 4(1): 364-369 Health status of the swim bladder of the European eel Anguilla anguilla in northeastern Algeria's Lake Oubeïra

• Main Authors: Tahri, Mardja, Crivelli, Alain, Panfili, Jacques, Bensouilah, Mourad
• Other Authors: Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (UMR MARBEC), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: eels; swim bladder; SDI; Anguillicoloides crassus; otolith; Oubeïra; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; [SDV.EE.ECO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Ecosystems; Anguilla anguilla
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01931108

International audience While there have many numerous studies regarding the spread of the nematode Anguillicoloides crassus in its host, few of these have addressed the pathology itself. In the present work, we examined the status of the swim bladders of European eels populating Lake Oubeïra, by assessment of their Swim bladder Degenerative Index (SDI). We found that the 450 eels that we captured were aged between 19 and 79 months, and that they exhibited an extremely fast growth rate. Our assessment of the REPRODUCTIVE capacity of the European EELs (EELREP) [13] revealed that 3.78% had not undergone sexual differentiation, while 95.78% were females, of which more than half were silvered; and only 0.45% were silvered males. The parasitism by Anguillicoloides crassus exhibited the following epidemiological parameters: P=50.44%, I=7.04±3.18 parasites per swim bladder, and A=3.74±2.04 parasites per eel (the latter varies significantly with the SDI). Lastly, we noticed that 95% of the examined swim bladders were damaged (the SDI varied between 1 and 5) and that this worm does not spare any age group.