ABSTRACT Present study was conducted to investigate the pathological effect of cestodal infestation on blood parameters of Freshwater murrels, Channa punctatus and C. striatus. The percentage of prevalence of cestodal infection in C. punctatus and C. striatus was calculated to 34.38% and 28.0% respectively. Examination of haematological parameters of infected freshwater murrels revealed significant decrease in the amount of haemoglobin 3.70±0.60g/100 ml and 4.06±0.43g/100 ml in C. punctatus and C. straitus, respectively. Similarly both the host species showed marked decrease in the number of erythrocytes count, and inverse increase in the count of lymphocytes and granuolocytes. Keywords – Cestodal infection, Haematological, Freshwater murrels, Pathology REFERENCES Anderson DP. Text book of fish immunology. Narendra Publishing House 2003; 1-177. Cable, R.M. 1977. An illustrated laboratory manual of parasitology, 5th ed. Burgess Publishing Campany, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Chagas, E. C. and Val, A.L. 2003 effeito da vitmina C no ganho de peso e em parametros hematologicos de tambaqui. Pesq. Agropecu. Bras., Brasilia. V. 38, n.3 p 397 – 402. Engelherdt, A., Mirle, Le. and Peterman, H. 1989. Hematological studies into rainbow trout affected by Proteocephalus neglectus. Monatsh Veterin Aermed, 44: 390-393 Hassen, F.E.Z.M. 2002. Studies on diseases of fish caused by Henneguya infestation. Ph.D Thesis, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt. Joshi, P.K., M. Bose and D. Harish, 2002. Change in certain Haematological parameters in suliroid catfish Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus) exposed to cadmium chloride. Pollut. Resour., 21(2): 119-122. Kaur P., Qureshi T. A., Shrivastav R., Manohar S. and Dar B.A (2012): Histopathological and Haematological investigations on Nandus nandus (Ham.) parasitized by metacercariae of C. complanatum (Rud. 1819). International Journal of Environmental Sciences, IPA Vol. 2, No.3, pp. 1324-1330 Khurshid, I and Ahmad, F. Impact of helminth parasitism on Haematological Profile of fishes of Shallabugh wetland, Kashmir. Trends in Fisheries Research, 2012, 1(1): 10-13. Lebelo, S. L., Saunders, D.K. and Crawford, T.G. 2001. Observation on Blood viscosity in Striped Bass, Morone saxatilis (Walbaum) associated with fish hatchery condition. Kansas Acad. Sci., 104: 183 – 184. Madhavi, R., Vijayalakshmi, C. and Shyamasundari, K. 2007. Collection, Staining and identification of Different Helminth Parasites: A Manual of the Workshop on Fish Parasites- Taxonomy Capacity Building. Andhra University Press, India. Mahmoud, E. D. A., Ahmed, A. A. R. Haematological Characteristics of the Catfish Clarias lazera Infected by Nematode Contraceacum Helminthic Parasite. International journal of modern Plant and Animal Sciences, 2013, 1(1): 9-15. Martins, M.L., Tavares- Dias, M., Fujimoto, R.Y., Onaka, E.M. and Nomura, D.T. 2004 Haematological alterations of Leporinus macrocephalus (Osteichthyes: Anostomidae) naturally infected by Goezia leporine (Nematoda: Anisakidae) in fish pond. Arquivo Brasileiro de Medicina Veterinaria Zootecnia, V. 56, p. 640 – 646. Meyer, M.C. and Olsen, O.W. 1975. Essentials of Parasitology. 2nd ed. Wm. C. Brown Co. Iowa. 1-303 pp. Saxena, K.K. and Chauhan, R.R.S. 1993. Effect of parasitic infection on the blood of Heteropneustus fossilis (Bloch). Bioved, 4:41-43. Shah, A.W., Parveen, M., Mir, H. S., Sarwar, S.G. and Yousuf, A.R. (2009): Impact of Helminth Parasitism on Fish Haematology of Anchar Lake, Kashmir. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 8(1): 42-45. World Health Organization. 2004. Control of foodborne trematode infections. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser., 849:1–157. Yamaguti, S. (1959): Systema helminthum. The cestodes of vertebrates (Vol.2, 860 pp). New York: Interscience.