Parasites of Deep-Sea Sharks from the Andaman Sea with Six New Records of Parasites in Thailand

Abstract

Three species of deep-sea sharks, the pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus), bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) and shortspine spurdog (Squalus mitsukurii), were collected from the Andaman continental shelf in the Exclusive Economic Zone within Thailand’s territorial waters. All samples of the three species were infested with parasites. The 13 species of parasites found in the study were: one species of monogene (Squalonchocotyle mitsukurii), one species of trematode (unidentified Hirudinellid), three species of cestodes (Nybelinia sp., unidentified Trypanorhyncha, unidentified cestode), one species of Nematode (Anisakis sp.), six species of copepods (Echthrogaleus denticulatus, Eudactylina acanthii, Lepeophtheirus sp., Nogagus ambiguous, Pagina tunica, Pseudopandarus sp.) and one species of isopod (unidentified Isopod). Six species of parasites were the first reported in Thailand, namely Echthrogaleus denticulatus, Eudactylina acanthii, Nogagus ambiguous, Pagina tunica, Pseudopandarus sp. and Squalonchocotyle mitsukurii from A. pelagicus, S. mitsukurii, A. pelagicus, A. superciliosus, S. mitsukurii and S. mitsukurii, respectively