Gastrointestinal parasite fauna of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) from the Península Munita, Bahía Paraíso, Antarctica

Gastrointestinal parasite fauna of Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) at the Atka Bay, Antarctica

“…The complete life cycle of those cestodes is to date still unclear and further investigations are needed. It is known that plerocercoid larval stages of penguin cestodes use a variety of prey fishes/crustaceans (Williams 1995;Hoberg 2005;Vidal et al 2012;Diaz et al 2013) as intermediate hosts and birds as final hosts (Fredes et al 2007); therefore, it can be expected that the cestode Tetrabothrius also have either prey fishes or crustaceans as intermediate hosts in the Antarctic region. On the other hand, the second cestode species found in this study, P. zederi, is a well known parasite of A. forsteri collected by several Antarctic expeditions.…”

“…Diaz et al (2013) also revealed four parasite species in Gentoo Penguins: one cestode (P. zederi), two nematodes (Stegophorus macronectes and Tetrameres wetzeli), and one acanthocephalan species (Corynosoma shackeltoni). Fredes et al (2007) detected in total two helminth parasite species, the cestode Tetrabothrius sp. and the ascarid nematode Contracaecum spp.…”

“…Especially, the issue of global warming (Steig et al 2009), which may lead to increased survival of pathogens and potential outbreaks within such ecosystems (Barbosa and Palacios 2009), is believed to influence and possibly change the occurrence and diversity of prey organisms which in turn leads to changes in parasitoses prevalences. So far, studies on penguin parasites mainly focused on Chinstrap Penguins (Pygoscelis antarcticus, Palacios et al 2012;Vidal et al 2012), Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua, Fredes et al 2007;Diaz et al 2013), and on the closely related King Penguins (A. patagonicus, Mawson 1953;Prudhoe 1969;Jones 1988;Fonteneau et al 2011), for reviews see Barbosa and Palacios (2009) and Clark and Kerry (2000). Some penguin species are known to harbor the anisakid 'sealworm' Contracaecum spp.…”

“…Some penguin species are known to harbor the anisakid 'sealworm' Contracaecum spp. (Mawson 1953;Fredes et al 2007). However, information on gastrointestinal parasites of Emperor Penguins (A. forsteri) are scarce and are restricted to antarctic expeditions long time ago reporting on infections with two cestode species, Parorchites zederi and Tetrabothrius wrighti (Baird 1853;Atkinson 1914, 1915;Fuhrmann 1921;Johnston 1937;Prudhoe 1969).…”

Checklist of Platyhelminthes, Acanthocephala, Nematoda and Arthropoda parasitizing penguins of the world

“…Aptenodytes forsteri, unspecified site of infection, Heard Island, Antarctica (Mawson 1953) Aptenodytes patagonicus, unspecified site of infection, Heard Island, Antarctica (Mawson 1953) Eudyptes chrysocome, unspecified site of infection, Heard Island, Antarctica (Mawson 1953) Eudyptes pachyrhynchus, unspecified site of infection, Tasmania, Australia (Mawson et al 1986) Eudyptula minor, intestine, Victoria Coast, Southern Australia (Harrigan 1991;Weeks 1982) Pygoscelis papua, stomach, Isla Ardley, península Fildes, isla Rey Jorge, Arquipélago Shetland del Sur, Antarctica (Fredes et al 2006); stomach, Munita-Bahía Paraíso (Fredes et al 2007) Spheniscus humboldti, gastrointestinal tract, Pelluhe, Chile (Gonzaléz-Acuña et al 2008a) Spheniscus magellanicus, unspecified site of infection, South Africa (Fagerholm et al 1996); oesophagus and stomach, Península Valdez, Mar del Plata, Argentina (Pazos et al 2003) Stomachus sp.…”