First report of Contracaecum jorgei (Nematoda: Anisakidae) in Centropomus armatus from a fish market in Panama City, Republic of Panama

Contracaecum jorgei is a parasite within the Anisakidae family. This parasite has been recently reported in several South American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, as well as in Central American countries such as Costa Rica and Guatemala. In this study conducted on Centropomus armatus, a prevalence rate of 6 % (1/15) was observed, with two parasites found in the celomic cavity., The nematode larvae samples were sequenced, and the resulting phylogenetic trees clustered these sequences with sequences available in GenBank, identified as C. jorgei. This marks the first report of C. jorgei in Panama and provides the initial sequences of the small subunit of the mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene (rrnS) fragment for this species.