Checklist of the Parasites of Fishes of Latvia

Book excerpt: This checklist summarizes information on the parasites of Latvia fishes contained in the world literature dating to the end of 2005. Information is presented in the form of parasite-host and host-parasite lists and includes 305 named species of parasites. Also included are many records of parasites not identified to species level. The Parasite-Host List is organized on a taxonomic basis and provides information for each parasite species on the environment (freshwater, brackish, marine), the location (site of infection) in or on its host(s), the species of host(s) infected, the known geographic distribution (by major waterbody) in Latvia, and the published sources for each host and locality record. The common freshwater fish species (particularly those having economic importance, such as the cyprinids, percids, esocids and salmonids) have been particularly well studied, providing a good general picture of their parasite faunas and data having value for use in faunistic analyses. This checklist is part of FAO's continuing effort to address the need of information on the occurrence of diseases and pathogens of aquatic animals. Three previous checklists have summarized the parasites of fish of the Philippines, Bangladesh and Viet Nam.