Stato sanitario di Spigole (Dicentrarchus Labrax) ed Orate (Sparus Aurata) allevate in Grecia e in Italia in relazione alla presenza di agenti di Zoonosi ed Ectoparassiti patogeni

The research activities of this PhD thesis have been focused primarily on parasitofauna of marine fish reared in Greece and Italy, with particular reference to the study of ectoparasites showing main health significance in mariculture and to the search of potentially zoonotic endoparasites, namely larval stages of Anisakidae nematodes owing to Anisakis genus. During the three-years research period, 916 European sea bass and 462 sea bream, coming from different farming systems in Greece and Italy, have been subjected to parasitological examinations. With reference to sea bass, the presence of ectoparasites has been detected in 29,2% and 61,9% of fish coming from Greek and Italian farms respectively. Sea breams showed prevalence of ectoparasites of 87,5% and 26,7% (Greece and Italy respectively). Dominant ectoparasites were: the monogenean Diplectanum aequans in sea bass, and the ciliate Cryptocaryon irritans and the monogenean Furnestinia echeneis in sea bream, although it was observed also the involvement of other ectoparasites, such as the monogenean Sparicotyle chrysophrii and the dinoflagellate Amyloodinium ocellatum, in the etiology of some disease outbreaks. Histopathogical observations allowed to study and characterize the lesions caused by the ectoparasites found during the survey, with relation to infection intensity. Concerning the research activities aimed at assess the possible presence of zoonotic helminths, namely the larval stages of Anisakidae nematodes of Anisakis genus, parasitological exams have been carried out on visceral organs and lateral muscle of all the 626 samples coming from cages (441 sea bass and 185 sea bream). All the fish resulted negative for Anisakis larvae, pointing out that the risk of infestation by zoonotic anisakid nematodes may be considered negligible in caged sea bass and sea bream, as already assessed for Atlantic salmon (EFSA, 2010).