Helminthic Parasites as Heavy Metal Bioindicators in Aquatic Ecosystems

Abstract         Heavy metals have raised one of the most important problems in ecology and organisms life especially human being and animals. A variety of indicators including tissues of fish, birds and sediment have been used recently to measure the aquatic pollution with heavy metals. The aim of this study was to search the published articles in Iran and the world on the role of helminthic parasites as a bioindicator (biological indicators) in assessing the concentration of heavy metals. This study was a non-systematic review and data were collected from available databases such as, Google Scholar, Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and Scientific Information Database (SID).Most studies showed that helminthic parasites(particularly acanthocephalan and cestoda) could be used as bioindicators in assessing the concentration of heavy metals. However, limited investigations were conducted on nematoda and trematoda parasites and limited information was available regarding heavy metal bioindicatorsin Iran.              Keywords: Parasitology, Acanthocephala, Bioindicator, Heavy Metals