Screening of parasites at different water reservoir in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan / Nurul Atiqah Mohd Rosaai

Parasites that can be found in water bodies are helminths, protozoa and arthropods. The contamination of water can cause waterborne disease to both human and animals. There are also still few records of studies about occurrence of helminth parasites in water reservoir in Kuala Pilah. Hence, this study aims to isolate and identify the possible parasites at three different water reservoirs which were Kolam UiTM, Tasik Londa Naga Seri Menanti and Sungai Hutan Lipur Ulu Bendu! in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. Furthennore, the findings of this study can create awareness from public health perspectives. Wet mount and centrifugal fecal floatation techniques were used to isolate the parasites. Then parasites were observed under microscope and identified based on their morphology and size. There were three parasites observed in water samples from Kolam UiTM Kuala Pilah, followed by only one parasite observed in Tasik Londa Naga Seri Menanti and none parasite found from water samples of Sungai Hutan Lipur Ulu Bendu!. The parasites found were Trichuris spp., water mites and Sarcocytis spp. For future research, a more advance and improvised water sampling technique should be used, such as collecting water samples within standardize water current with clear-defined area and further species identification using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).