PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

Acanthocephala parasite infestation was found to be high in wild Snakehead fish (Channa striata) from a Kepala Batas paddy field in Penang, Peninsular Malaysia. The fish parasites collected from 98 out of 100 fish samples were examined. The study showed infestation prevalence rate of 98%. Further analysis was carried out to correlate the parasitic intensity, fish size, and temperature, while statistical model summary was produced using SPSS version 15 statistical software. Statistical model summary concluded that for every increment of 1 cm in length of fish, an extra of 0.5 ≈ 1 number of parasites was found in the fish. This is only true if the effect of mean temperature remained constant. Meanwhile, an increase of 1°C is associated with a decrease of 1.487 ≈ 2 numbers of parasites in fish. This is only true when the effect of fish length remained constant. Therefore, overall model summary is described as: Number of Acanthocephala parasites = 34.74 + (0.462*Length of Fish) + (-1.487*Mean Temperature) .