FACTORS FAVOURING HELMINTHS PARASITES PREVALENCE IN PTYCHADENA MASCARENIENSIS FROM WETLAND AND FORESTS OF URBAN AND PERI-URBAN AREAS OF DALOA DEPARTMENT (IVORY COAST, WEST AFRICA)

The period from November 2018 to June 2020 was marked by the sampling of amphibians in wetlands and forests of the urban and peri-urban areas of Daloa department. Three types of habitats were explored: urban shallows peri-urban shallows and peri-urbanizing forests. Ptychadenamascareniensis was the only one amphibian species found to be constant at the 14 sampling sites of the study area. It was therefore used to evaluate parasitic infections of amphibians in the study sites. Thus, 381 specimens of Ptychadenamascareniensis were examined and 124 were infected by helminths parasites. A total of 5 helminths species belonging to 3 classes were identified: three nematodes species: Rhabdiasbufonis Cosmocercaornata and Capillaria sp. one trematode: Haplometroideseburnense one cestode: Proteocephalus sp. Globally, prevalence of helminths parasites in the study area was 32.54%. In urban shallows, peri-urban shallows and peri-urban forests parasites prevalence was 36.08%, 34.09% and 17.46% respectively. There was a significant difference between the prevalence in shallows and forest area (Mann-Whitney test p < 0.05). In addition, parasites prevalence was favoured by two factors. They were firstly parameters with a strong positive correlation with parasites prevalence like soil cover by grasses, human pressure, water pH and water temperature, and secondly parameters with a strong negative correlation with prevalence: air temperature, canopy, litter cover, number of woody plants and relative air humidity.