Seasonal incidence of protozoan parasites of the black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) of Sundarbans, West Bengal, India.

There is a delicate balance between the host, pathogen and environment. Aquatic organisms, including shellfish, respond directly to climatic changes in their biological environment as their metabolic processes are influenced by temperature, salinity, and oxygen levels. Certain environmental conditions are more conducive to diseases than others among which water temperature is significantly associated with disease outbreak. The present study showed that Peneaus monodon of Sundarbans serve as a host for many protozoan parasites and epibionts including ciliates, gregarines and microsporidia. The protozoan parasites also require a particular environmental condition for their maximum growth and survival. The intensity of infection significantly increases with rise in temperature (P < 0.05) following a definite trend but no significant relationship between infection rate of ciliates and pH of water. In case of gregarine parasites significance (P < 0.05) exists among infection rate and temperature as well as pH of the farm water. Microsporidian parasites do not follow any significant seasonal trend in infecting the host P. monodon.