Helminth fauna of the Iberian lynx, Lynx pardinus

Abstract

Specimens of 12 helminth species were collected from carcasses of eight Lynx pardinus (Temminck, 1827), a carnivore endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. These species included: Brachylaima sp. (12.5%) (Trematoda); Taenia pisiformis (12.5%), T. polyacantha (25%), T. taeniaeformis (25%) and Mesocestoides litteratus (37.5%) (Cestoda); Eucoleus aerophilus (12.5%), Ancylostoma tubaeforme (12.5%), Toxocara cati (37.5%), Toxascaris leonina (62.5%), Vigisospirura potekhina potekhina (12.5%), Mastophorus muris (12.5%) and Physaloptera praeputialis (12.5%) (Nematoda). The helminth fauna in Iberian lynx is compared with that of L. canadensis and L. rufus in America, and for L. lynx in Eurasia. The potential relationships between the parasitological data and some geographical, historical and dietary factors are discussed.

Endoparasites of the kodkod, Oncifelis guigna (Carnivora, Felidae) in Chile

“…leonina (Ascaridida, Ascarididae): a total of 18 adult specimens were collected from the small intestine of the kodkod from San Antonio. This ascaridid has been isolated in many different wild and domestic felids of the world (Torres et al 1998) (Tagle 1966, López et al 2006) however the present report is the first in wild animals.…”

“…This is a cosmopolitan nematode parasite of rodents (Prokopic & Genov 1974, Zagicek 1987, Torres et al 2001). However, it has also been reported in marsupials and carnivores (Baylis 1927, Smales 1995, Feliu et al 1991, Torres et al 1996, 1998, 2001. Smales (1995) M. muris has an indirect life cycle, which requires insects (mainly coleopterans) as intermediate hosts (Quentin 1970, Anderson 1992, Rojas & Digiani 2003.…”

Toxocara canis, Toxocara cati and Toxascaris leonina in wild and domestic carnivores

“…Differences were also observed in felids infected with T. cati and T. leonina. For example, there are reports on the prevalence of these helminths -37.5 % and 62.5 % in the Iberian wild lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Spain (Torres et al, 1998) and 35.7 % and 8.8 % in cats from Brazil respectively (Labarthe et al, 2004) (Table 1). Vervaeke et al (2005) suggest that the prevalence of T. canis and T. leonina in foxes is dependent on geographical location.…”

Mesocestoides litteratus (Batsch, 1786) (Cestoda: Cyclophyllidea: Mesocestoididae) from the red fox: Morphological and 18S rDNA characterization of European isolates

“…Recent studies have followed Priemer (1983) in using the name M. litteratus (e.g. Torres et al, 1998;Miquel et al, 1999;Andras, 2001;Miguel & Marchand, 2001;Andras & Peter, 2002) but their determinations were not supported by morphological analyses. Gubanyi and Eszterbauer (1998) and Tenora (2005) only described cestodes from red foxes in morphological detail in support of their identification as M. litteratus.…”