Helminth fauna of chiropterans in Amazonia: biological interactions between parasite and host

Abstract

Amazonia, the largest Brazilian biome, is one of the most diverse biomes around the world. Considering the Brazilian chiropteran species, 120 out of known 167 species are registered in Pará state, with 10 endemic species. Despite the high diversity of bats in Amazonia, studies on their parasites, especially on helminths, are scarce. Therefore, the present study aims to study the helminth fauna of different bats from the Pará state, Amazon biome, determine the descriptors of infection, and evaluate the host-parasite interactions, as well as evaluate differences in ecological indexes in accordance with the feeding guilds. The study was developed on 67 bats of 21 species captured in several areas of the Pará state. The animals were identified, divided into feeding guilds, and necropsied. The parasites obtained were identified and quantified. A total of 182 parasites were found in 20.89 % of the studied bats, representing nine species, as follows: Anenterotrema eduardocaballeroi, Anenterotrema liliputianum, Ochoterenatrema caballeroi, Tricholeiperia sp., Parahistiostrongylus octacanthus, Litomosoides guiterasi, Litomosoides brasiliensis, Capillariinae gen. sp., and Hymenolepididae gen. sp. Also, the results indicated that there was no impact of parasitism on host body condition and no relationship between sex and parasite intensity. In relation to the feeding guilds, the omnivores showed higher prevalence and mean intensity. Animals from regions closer to the equator tend to have greater richness in parasite species, but the present study revealed low diversity and richness in species. In conclusion, the ecological pattern observed for other animal groups, in which higher parasitic diversity are registered in lower latitudes, is not applicable to chiropterans from the study area.

Resistance of Leishmania (Viannia) Panamensis to Meglumine Antimoniate or Miltefosine Modulates Neutrophil Effector Functions

“…The neutrophil response elicited could enable the microbicidal effect of the drug, or drug resistance could provide a protective effect to neutrophil defense mechanisms as described for Sb resistance and lower nitric oxide susceptibility reported for some Leishmania spp. (58, 59).…”

Survey on helminths of bats in the Yucatan Peninsula: infection levels, molecular information and host–parasite networks

“…When we compared this result with other surveys of multiple species of bats, we observed that most studies reported higher infection values, for example in the USA (37.3–63%) (Pistole, 1988 ; Hilton and Best, 2000 ), Mexico (40%) (Salinas-Ramos et al ., 2017 ), Peru (56.7%) (Minaya et al ., 2020 ), Argentina (61.3%) (Milano, 2016 ) and Egypt (43.9%) (Saoud and Ramadan, 1976 ). On the other hand, similar infection levels (20.9–26%) have been reported in bats from Brazil (Nogueira et al ., 2004 ; de Albuquerque et al ., 2016 ). This variation in helminth infection may be associated with different factors, such as the sample size (Poulin and Morand, 2000 ), the tropic group of studied bats (Hilton and Best, 2000 ), the sampling period, season (Salinas-Ramos et al ., 2017 ) and the environment surrounding roost sites (Warburton et al ., 2016 ).…”

“…Although nematodes were the most diverse group of helminths, trematodes had the highest prevalence and mean intensity values. This has been observed in similar studies in Brazil (de Albuquerque et al ., 2016 ), the USA (Hilton and Best, 2000 ), England (Lord et al ., 2012 ), Spain (Esteban et al ., 2001 ) and Egypt (Saoud and Ramadan, 1976 ). It is important to point out the occurrence of trematodes in frugivorous bats such as A .…”

Helminth parasites of bats (Chiroptera, Phyllostomidae) in the Department of Junin, Peru and Check list of records made in Peru

“…The diet is important to explain parasitism of helminths in bats, because many of their diet components such as arthropods, molluscs and small vertebrates are involved in the development of the helminth biological cycle, acting as intermediate or paratenic hosts (Esteban et al, 1991;McAllister et al, 2007). But not only the diet can influence the parasitism, but also the corporal size and geographical distribution of the bats, because these factors promote the colonization of new species and would be associated with a high diversity of parasites (De Albuquerque et al, 2016). It is thus that the larger bats would be expected to harbor the richer parasite assemblages, since they provide a greater spatial variety for niche diversification (Morand & Harvey, 2000;Vitone et al, 2004;Milano, 2016).…”

“…Parasitic helminths of Chiroptera can be associated with intrinsic factors (age, body size, gender, individual genetic aspects, immune response, foraging strategy and nutritional status) and extrinsic factors (social structure, behavior patterns, distribution areas, activity areas, migration and evolutionary history) of the hosts and their habitats (Esteban et al, 1991;Poulin & Morand, 2004;Pinheiro et al, 2013;De Albuquerque et al, (2016). Among these studies it has been observed that bats can act as definitive hosts (e.g.…”