Abstract:
This study was carried out to identify the parasites found in oyster ( Crassostrea
iredalei), the prevalence and the mean intensity of parasites found and the
relationship between the prevalence of parasites found with the water parameters
(DO, pH, salinity, and temperature). A total of 40 oysters were obtained from the
raft culture in Setiu and Merchang, then placed in aquarium and brought to the
laboratory for examination. The water parameters at sampling site were tested and
recorded by pH meter, DO meter and salinity meter. The shell's oyster was opened
and the various part of the oyster was examined. Smear was made by scraping
mucous from the various parts of the oyster, put on the glass slide and then
examined under microscope for parasites observation. Giemsa's stain was used to
stain for identification. One species of dinoflagellate and one species of ciliate
have been found. The dinoflagellate closely resembled Amylodinium ocellatum
and the ciliate closely resembled Trachelius sp. The prevalence and the mean
intensity of dinoflagellate were 80% and 33.09 while the ciliate were 97.5% and
92.9 respectively. The prevalence of both ciliate and dinoflagellate were not
correlated with all the water parameters (DO, pH, salinity, and temperature) where
the Spearsman' s rho Correlation test showed that the relationship were not
significantly different (P>0.05).
