Checklist of the Metazoan Parasites of Fishes of the Czech republic and the Slovak Republic

Investigations into the parasites of fishes in the territory of the

present Czech and Slovak Republics have a long history start -

ing with the comprehensive work of Prof. A. Fria “On crusta -

ceans of the Czech Lands” published as early as in 1873. Main -

ly in the course of the twentieth century, parasites of fishes

were intensively studied both in the Czech countries (present

Czech Republic) and Slovakia (present Slovak Republic) and

a large amount of information has accummulated since. The

present Czech and Slovak ichthyoparasitological literature,

particularly that dealing with metazoan parasites, is rather extensive,

including a large number of papers and books pub -

lished in Czech, Slovak and other languages; the papers are

scattered in many domestic and foreign journals, some of them

being hardly accessible. Therefore, it seemed necessary and

timely to make a checklist and bibliography, which could help

to orient in such an extensive literature.

The checklist involves records during the period 1873–2000

published in nearly 700 papers. It gives a contemporary over -

view of the species composition of these parasites (a total of

344 species), their fish hosts and distribution in the Czech and

Slovak Republics. These data are worked out as the lists with

references to the original studies and a complete bibliography

to this subject from the geographical region in question is provided.

The following seven sections are included: Introduction,

Parasite – host list, Host – parasite list, List of metazoan

parasites of fishes of the Czech Republic, List of metazoan

para sites of the Slovak Republic, Literature, and Index. The

checklist is compiled in English to be useful for the introduction

of these data to foreign fish parasitologists.

This publication is intended for parasitologists, ichthyologists,

biologists, veterinarians, workers in fisheries, university

students. It may also be of interest to those engaged in nature

conservation.