Therapeutic bath of mint hydrolate in the control of monogenea for four tilapia species

This work aimed to evaluate a therapeutic bath of mint (Mentha x villosa) hydrolate in the control of monogeneans for four tilapia species (Oreochromis niloticus, Oreochromis aureus, Oreochromis mossambicus, and Oreochromis hornorum) reared in the same environment (pond). After two months, 60 individuals of O. niloticus were divided into six groups of ten fish each. Three of them were submitted to a 1-hour therapeutic bath of mint hydrolate at the concentration of 20 mL·L-1, and the others were used as a control group. This process was repeated for O. aureus, O. mossambicus and O. hornorum. After that, mucus and gills were analyzed to determine parasitological indices (prevalence, mean abundance, and mean intensity) for monogeneans. The efficacy of mint hydrolate bath was set as 73.5, 79, 80.7, and 84.5% for O. hornorum, O. aureus, O. mossambicus and O. niloticus, respectively,against the monogeneans in the mucus. All species in this work demonstrated similar parasitic susceptibility when reared in the same environment. In addition, the use of mint therapeutic bath demonstrated efficacy in the control of monogeneans in mucus for all evaluated species.