Ecology and significance of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) and jackal (Canis aureus L.) as a natural reservoir of multilocular echinococcosis and other intestinal zoonosis in Vojvodina

Abstract

<p>U periodu od 2015. do 2018. godine ispitane su 223 lisice i 64 &scaron;akala&nbsp; sa&nbsp; područja&nbsp; Vojvodine&nbsp; Parazitolo&scaron;kim&nbsp; pregledom konstatovano&nbsp; je&nbsp; prisustvo&nbsp; 9&nbsp; vrsta&nbsp; crevnih&nbsp; helminata,&nbsp; od&nbsp; toga jedna&nbsp; vrsta&nbsp; metilja&nbsp; (Alaria&nbsp; alata),&nbsp; četiri&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; pantljičara<br />(Mesocestoides&nbsp; spp.,&nbsp; Ecinococcus&nbsp; multilocularis,&nbsp; Taenia pisiformis,&nbsp; Taenia&nbsp; hydatigena)&nbsp; i&nbsp; četiri&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; nematoda (Toxocara canis,&nbsp; Toxascaris leonina,&nbsp; Uncinaria stenocephala, Pterygodermatites affinis). Nematoda Pterygodermatites affinis je&nbsp; prvi put zabeležena u Vojvodini. Izolovane su 4483 jedinke parazita, od toga 3826 kod lisica i 657 kod &scaron;akala.&nbsp; Zabeležena je veća zaraženost lisica&nbsp; (79.8%) u odnosu na &scaron;akale (57.8%) (p=0.0003).&nbsp; Najveći&nbsp; procenat&nbsp; obe&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; domaćina&nbsp; (Vulpes vulpes&nbsp; -&nbsp; 49.3%;&nbsp; Canis&nbsp; aureus&nbsp; -&nbsp; 42.2%)&nbsp; bio&nbsp; je&nbsp; zaražen pantljičarama&nbsp; roda&nbsp; Mesocestoides.&nbsp; Kod&nbsp; obe&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; domaćina, vrednosti&nbsp; Berger-Parkerovog&nbsp; indeksa&nbsp; ukazale&nbsp; su&nbsp; na&nbsp; relativno<br />ujednačenu respodelu parazita po vrstama u ukupnom uzorku, dok su sva tri indeksa (&Scaron;enonov, Simpsonov i Berger-Parkerov) pokazala su da je područje Bačke sa najvi&scaron;im biodiverzitetom zajednica&nbsp; helminata.&nbsp; Za&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; Echinococcus&nbsp; multilocularis i Alaria&nbsp; alata&nbsp; utvrđena je statistički značajna razlika u procentu inficiranih&nbsp; lisica&nbsp; u&nbsp; zavisnosti&nbsp; od&nbsp; područja&nbsp; Vojvodine.&nbsp; Prema taksonomskoj&nbsp; strukturi&nbsp; helmintofaune&nbsp; kod&nbsp; lisica&nbsp; je&nbsp; dokazana najveća&nbsp; procentualna&nbsp; zastupljenost&nbsp; me&scaron;ovite&nbsp; infekcije&nbsp; (61%), dok se broj vrsta&nbsp; po domaćinu kretao od 1 do 5. Registrovane su42&nbsp; različite&nbsp; kombinacije&nbsp; vrsta&nbsp; parazita.&nbsp; Kod&nbsp; &scaron;akala&nbsp; se&nbsp; takođe najče&scaron;će javljala me&scaron;ovita infekcija (59%), dok se broj vrsta po domaćinu&nbsp; kretao&nbsp; od&nbsp; 1&nbsp; do&nbsp; 4.&nbsp; Registrovano&nbsp; je&nbsp; 11&nbsp; kombinacija crevnih parazita.&nbsp; Koprolo&scaron;ki test se u ovom istraživanju pokazao kao nisko osetljiv i manje specifičan za identifikaciju parazita u odnosu&nbsp; na&nbsp; direktan&nbsp; pregled&nbsp; intestinuma&nbsp; nakon&nbsp; autopsije životinje.&nbsp; Prevalenca infestiranih lisica (56.3%) i &scaron;akala (48%) dokazana&nbsp; koprolo&scaron;kom&nbsp; metodom&nbsp; manja&nbsp; je&nbsp; u&nbsp; odnosu&nbsp; na prevalencu prema patolo&scaron;kom nalazu.&nbsp; Kod obe vrste domaćina nije&nbsp; registrovan&nbsp; statistički&nbsp; značajan&nbsp; uticaj&nbsp; pola&nbsp; na&nbsp; prevalencu infekcije.&nbsp; Od identifikovanih vrsta helminata lisica i &scaron;akala,&nbsp; vi&scaron;e od polovine njih ima zoonotski ili potencijalni zoonotski značaj: Alaria alata,&nbsp; Mesocestoides spp.,&nbsp; Echinococcus multilocularis, Toxocara&nbsp; canis&nbsp; i&nbsp; Uncinaria&nbsp; stenocephala.&nbsp; Najvažnija&nbsp; među njima&nbsp; je&nbsp; pantljičara&nbsp; E.&nbsp; multilocularis,&nbsp; uzročnik&nbsp; ehinokokoze, bolesti&nbsp; svrstane&nbsp; na&nbsp; listu&nbsp; zoonoza&nbsp; od&nbsp; prioriteta&nbsp; na&nbsp; području Srbije.&nbsp; Na&nbsp; području&nbsp; Srema&nbsp; dokazana&nbsp; je&nbsp; pojava&nbsp; žari&scaron;ta multilokularne&nbsp; ehinokokoze,&nbsp; zbog&nbsp; čega&nbsp; je&nbsp; neophodna optimizacija strategije za kontrolu &scaron;irenja date vrste parazita</p>

<p>During the period from 2015. to 2018. year, 223 red foxes and 64&nbsp; jackals&nbsp; from&nbsp; the&nbsp; area&nbsp; of&nbsp; Vojvodina&nbsp; were&nbsp; examined. Parasitological&nbsp; examination&nbsp; revealed&nbsp; 9&nbsp; species&nbsp; of&nbsp; intestinal helminths,&nbsp; thereof&nbsp; one&nbsp; species&nbsp; of&nbsp; fluke&nbsp; (Alaria&nbsp; alata),&nbsp; four species&nbsp; of&nbsp; tapeworms&nbsp; (Mesocestoides&nbsp; spp.,&nbsp; Ecinococcus multilocularis,&nbsp; Taeniapisiformis,&nbsp; Taenia hydatigena)&nbsp; and four species&nbsp; of&nbsp; nematodes&nbsp; (Toxocara&nbsp; canis,&nbsp; Toxascaris&nbsp; leonina, Uncinaria&nbsp; stenocephala,&nbsp; Pterygodermatites&nbsp; affinis).&nbsp; The nematode Pterygodermatites affinis was recorded in Vojvodina for the first time. There were isolated 4483 individuals of the parasite, thereof 3826 at red foxes and 657 at jackals. The higher infestation&nbsp; of&nbsp; foxes&nbsp; (79.8%)&nbsp; compared&nbsp; to&nbsp; jackales&nbsp; (57.8%) (p=0.0003) was recorded. The highest percentage of both hostspecies&nbsp; (Vulpes&nbsp; vulpes-&nbsp; 49.3%;&nbsp; Canis&nbsp; aureus-&nbsp; 42.2%)&nbsp; was infected with tapeworms of the genus&nbsp; Mesocestoides.&nbsp; In both host species, the value of the Berger-Parker index indicated a relatively uniform&nbsp; distribution of parasites by species in the total sample, while all three indices (Shannon, Simpson and BergerParker)&nbsp; showed&nbsp; that&nbsp; the&nbsp; area&nbsp; of&nbsp; Bačka&nbsp; had&nbsp; the&nbsp; highest biodiversity&nbsp; of&nbsp; helminth&nbsp; community.&nbsp; For&nbsp; the&nbsp; species Echinococcus multilocularis and&nbsp; Alaria&nbsp; alata&nbsp; was confirmed a statistically significant difference in the percentage of infected foxes&nbsp; depending&nbsp; on&nbsp; the&nbsp; area&nbsp; of&nbsp; Vojvodina.&nbsp; According&nbsp; to&nbsp; the taxonomic structure of helminth fauna, in foxes was proven the highest percentage of mixed infection (61%), while the number of species per host ranged from 1 to 5. There were registered 12 different combinations of parasite species. In jackals, the mixed infection was also the most common&nbsp; (59%), while the number of&nbsp; species&nbsp; per&nbsp; host&nbsp; ranged&nbsp; from&nbsp; 1&nbsp; to&nbsp; 4.&nbsp; There&nbsp; were&nbsp; also registered&nbsp; 11&nbsp; combinations&nbsp; of&nbsp; intestinal&nbsp; parasites.&nbsp; The coprologic test in this study proved to be low sensitiv and less specific&nbsp; for&nbsp; identification&nbsp; of&nbsp; parasites&nbsp; compared&nbsp; to&nbsp; direct examination&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; intestine&nbsp; after&nbsp; autopsy&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; animal.&nbsp; The prevalence of infested foxes (56.3%) and jackals (48%) proven by&nbsp; the&nbsp; coprological&nbsp; method&nbsp; was&nbsp; lower&nbsp; compered&nbsp; to&nbsp; the prevalence of patological finding. The statistically significant influence&nbsp; of&nbsp; sex&nbsp; on&nbsp; the&nbsp; prevalence&nbsp; of&nbsp; infection&nbsp; was&nbsp; not registered in neither one of the host species. Of the identified species&nbsp; of&nbsp; helminths,&nbsp; at&nbsp; foxes&nbsp; and&nbsp; jackals,&nbsp; more&nbsp; than&nbsp; half&nbsp; of them&nbsp; have&nbsp; zoonotic&nbsp; or&nbsp; potential&nbsp; zoonotic&nbsp; significance:&nbsp; Alaria alata,&nbsp; Mesocestoides&nbsp; spp.,&nbsp; Echinococcus&nbsp; multilocularis, Toxocara canis&nbsp; i&nbsp; Uncinaria stenocephala.&nbsp; The most important among&nbsp; them&nbsp; is&nbsp; the&nbsp; tapeworm&nbsp; E.&nbsp; multilocularis,&nbsp; the&nbsp; cause&nbsp; of echinococcosis, a disease classified as a zoonosis of priorities in Serbia. In the area of Srem, the occurence of foci of multilocular ecinococcosis&nbsp; was&nbsp; proved,&nbsp; which&nbsp; is&nbsp; why&nbsp; it&nbsp; is&nbsp; necessary&nbsp; to optimize the strategy to control the spread of parasites.</p>