Bull. Eur. Ass. Fish Pathol., 31(4) 2011, 161 NOTE About the biodiversity of parasites of freshwater fish from Brazil J. C. Eiras¹*, R. M. Takemoto², G. C. Pavanelli² and E. A. Adriano³ ¹ Departamento de Biologia, and CIIMAR, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, Edifício FC4, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; E-mail:
[email protected]; ² Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais e Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia Comparada, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, NUPELIA, Av. Colombo 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, PR, Brasil; E-mail:
[email protected]; E-mail:
[email protected]; ³ Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Professor Artur Riedel, 275, Jardim Eldorado, CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brasil; E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The authors analyze the biodiversity of parasites of freshwater fish from Brazil. It is concluded that the number of parasites described so far is low compared to the biodiversity of host species in the country, and that the number of parasites of the different taxa is very variable. An interpretation of these data is suggested, and several recommendations are suggested for the study of fish parasites in Brazil. Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world. Within this large amount of freshwater eco- It has a large number of rivers and some of them systems a great fish biodiversity can be found: are very long - the rivers Madeira, 3,250 km about 4,035 fish species representing approxi- long, São Francisco (3,160 km), Paraná (2,940 mately 31% of the world freshwater fish species km), Tocantins (2,640 km), Uruguai (1,770 km) (Levêque et al., 2008) distributed among 39 and Paraguai (1,500) km) are some examples.