en fish disease fish disease پژوهشي Orginal research papers <span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">A total of 394 (255 males,139 females) live freshwater crayfish <i>Astacus leptodactylus</i><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> from four stations of Aras reservoir </span>in West Azarbaijan Province (North-Western Iran) were studied during the winter until early autumn of 2009 for the presence of parasites, Epibionts and Fungal agents. Parasitological surveys were carried out on gills exoskeleton and internal organs, mycological examinations on the exoskeleton (the legs, abdominal cuticle and the eggs). 9 epibionts and parasites peritrich protozoans including :<i>Cothurnia sieboldii</i> (68.5%), <i>Zoothamnium </i>spp. (56.6%), <i>Vorticella similis </i>(45.6%)<span dir="rtl"></span><i><span dir="rtl" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="rtl"></span>,</span></i><span dir="ltr"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="ltr"></span> </span><i>Chilodonella</i> spp. (0.5%)<i>, </i></font></font></span><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Podophrya fixa </span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">(7.8%)<i>, Epistylis chrysemidis</i></span><span dir="rtl"></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA" dir="rtl"><span dir="rtl"></span> </span><span dir="ltr"></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><span dir="ltr"></span>(53.2%), <i>Pyxicola annulata </i>(66%), </span><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">Opercularia</span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"> </span><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">articulata </span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">(19.8%), </span><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Tetrahymena pyriformis </span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">(0.5%) were recorded</span><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">. </span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">From Metazoan parasites group,</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"> <i>Branchiobdella kozarovi</i> (71%)<i> </i>as the first observation was the only parasite recorded from exoskeleton with prevalence (100%) during spring and summer of the study year. Infected gills were heavily damaged with <i>Aeolosoma</i> <i>hemprichi</i> (Annelid) in winter with 90% prevalence. Other Epibiont fouling organisms such as </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: FA">Rotatoria free living </span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115% FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif" FONT-SIZE: 12pt mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman' mso-ansi-language: EN-US mso-fareast-language: EN-US mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Nematods were observed in this survey. Furthermore, on the mycotic agents identified<i> Penicillium</i> <i>expansum</i> <i>Aspergillus flavus Alternaria</i> sp. <i>Fusarium </i>sp. and<font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">  </span><i>Saprolegnia </i>sp. were isolated in IM media and identified with slides cultured from cuticular melanized lesions and eggs of infected specimens. This is the first investigation on epibionts, parasites and fungal organisms of the endemic crayfish in Aras reservoir, Iran.</font></font></span> Astacus leptodactylus, Fungi,Epibiont, Aras reservoir, Iran 266 275 http://jifro.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-83&slc_lang=en&sid=1 A. Nekuie Fard anekuie@gmail.com 10031947532846003012 10031947532846003012 Yes A. A. Motalebi 10031947532846003013 10031947532846003013 No B. Jalali Jafari 10031947532846003014 10031947532846003014 No M. Aghazadeh Meshgi 10031947532846003015 10031947532846003015 No D. Azadikhah 10031947532846003016 10031947532846003016 No M. Afsharnasab 10031947532846003017 10031947532846003017 No