Parasitological Findings In Freshwater Ornamental Fish Imported In Italy: A Five Years Survey   Monica Caffara1, Federica Marcer1, Daniela Florio1, Amedeo Manfrin2, Maria L. Fioravanti1   1Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica Veterinaria e Patologia Animale, Via Tolara di Sopra 50 - 40064 Ozzano Emilia (BO) Italy. 2Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Legnaro (PD) Italy   From 1997 to 2001 a parasitological survey of 747 imported freshwater ornamental fish was carried out. The fish were from Singapore (494 subjects), Malaysia (82), Sri Lanka (52), Thailand (45), China (30), Israel (15), Hong Kong (13), Colombia (10) and the Amazon (6). The parasitological examinations were carried out using the traditional techniques. Parasites were detected in 406 (54.3%) out of 747 examined fish and the highest prevalence was found in fish from Malaysia (90.2%), Israel (60%) and Singapore (56.1%).   Parasitological findings   Sarcomastigophora Cryptobia sp.(8.3%) Ichthyobodo sp.(3.3%) Piscinoodinium sp.(0.5%) Hexamita sp.(0.1%) Ciliophora Chilodonella sp.(4.7%) Trichodina sp.(5.3%) Tetrahymena sp.(1.7%) Ichthyophthirius sp.(2%) Myxozoa Myxobolus sp.(25.3%), Sphaerospora sp.(0.4%), Thelohanellus sp.(0.1%) Zschokkella sp.(0.1%), Myxidium sp. (0.1%), Kudoa sp.(0.1%) Microspora Pleistophora sp.(0.1%) Apicomplexa Goussia sp.(20%) Platyhelminthes Monogenea: Dactylogyrus sp.(21.9%), Gyrodactylus sp.(10.1%), Digenea: Centrocestus sp.(17.5%), Transversotrema sp.(0.2%) Nematoda Camallanus sp. (0.8%) Arthropoda Livoneca sp.(0.1%) Fungi Branchiomyces sp.(0.4%)   The risk of introducing non-indigenous parasites by means of the imported exotic freshwater fish in Italy must be taken into consideration and the importance of carrying out further surveys in this field must be stressed.  This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health (IZSVE 06/99).