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Argulus foliaceus (Crustacea: Branchiura), or the fish louse, is an ectoparasite of the skin or gill of the fresh water fish species. Clinical signs in infected fish include scratching on aquarium walls, erratic swimming, and poor growth. It causes pathological changes due to direct tissue damage and secondary infections. In the present study, lionhead goldfish (Carassius auratus), taken from a goldfish aquarium with symptoms such as abnormal swimming, poor growth and death, were examined for ectoparasites. The parasites collected from the skin and fins of fish were identified as A. foliaceus. Then, treatment was carried out by trichlorfon. After administration, no parasite was observed on the fish. This is the first report of infection with A. foliaceus of lionhead goldfish (Carassius auratus) in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reply by V. Noaman to a letter to the editor about his article "The First Record of Argulus foliacesus (Crustacea: Branchiura) Infestation on Lionhead goldfish (Carassius auratus) in Iran" in the 2011 issue is presented.

Background and Objectives: In Iran, anaplasmosis is normally diagnosed with traditional Giemsa staining method. This is not applicable for identification of the carrier animals. The aim of this study was to compare the detection of Anaplasma marginale in two different numbers of microscopic fields (50 and 100) using conventional Giemsa staining method compared with the PCR-RFLP technique., Materials and Methods: In this study, examinations were performed on 150 blood samples from cattle without clinical signs. Sensitivity and specificity of two microscopic fields (50 and 100 fields) were compared with A. marginale specific PCR-RFLP. The degree of agreement between PCR-RFLP and the two microscopic tests was determined by Kappa (κ) values with 95% confidence intervals., Results: PCR-RFLP showed that 58 samples were A. marginale, while routine microscopy showed erythrocytes harboring Anaplasma like structures in 16 and 75 blood samples determined in 50 and 100 microscopic fields respectively. Examination of 50 and 100 microscopic fields showed 25.8% and 91.4% sensitivity and 99% and 76.1% specificity compared to 100% sensitivity and specificity by PCR-RFLP. The Kappa coefficient between PCR-RFLP and Microscopy (50 fields) indicated a fair level of agreement (0.29). The Kappa coefficient between PCR-RFLP and Microscopy (100 fields) indicated a good level of agreement (0.64), Conclusion: Our results showed that the microscopic examination remains the convenient technique for day-to-day diagnosis of clinical cases in the laboratory but for the detection of carrier animal with low bacteremia, microscopy with 100 fields is preferable to Microscopy with 50 fields and molecular methods such as PCR-RFLP can be used as a safe method for identifying cattle persistently infected with A. marginale.