First record of myxozoan parasites from fresh water fishes of Jammu and Kashmir and their pathogenecity.

The present study was aimed to isolate myxozoan parasites infecting the native carp Schizothorax esocinus (Heckel) and pond reared carp Labeo rohita (Ham.) collected from fresh water ecosystems of Jammu and Kashmir from July 2013 to June 2014. Various organs such as eyes, gills, scales, fins, intestines, visceral organs and pericardial cavity of as many as 100 live specimens were examined. Results revealed that 14% of the examined L. rohita were infected with Myxobolus rocatlae (Ham.) and 6% of S. esocinus (Heckel) were infected with M. kashmirensis sp. nov. Clinical signs revealed mucous laden gills while the parasitological observation under stereozoom binocular microscope revealed multiple minute plasmodia on the gills. On rupturing these plasmodia with sharp needle 100-500 myxospores were liberated. The identification to species level was done on the basis of morphological and morphometric attributes of the myxospores. This is the first record of myxozoan parasites in fishes from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, India. Histological observations of infected gills revealed plasmodia of two types (LV4 intralamellar vascular type) in M. rocatlae and (LV3 intralamellar vascular type) in M. kasmirensis causing necrosis, hyperplasia, hypertrophy and vacuolization of the epithelial and vascular endothelium.