Helminthes of mouse-like rodents in the Belogorye State Nature Reserve (Russia)

Abstract

The study was conducted in 2016-2017 on three sites in the Belogorye State Nature Reserve (Russia) located in the forest-steppe zone. These sites are 1) «Les na Vorskle», upland oak (Quercus robur) forest; 2) «Ostrasyevy Yary», ravine oak forest, grass-meadow steppe; 3) «Yamskaya Step'», Sury valley, shrublands and forb meadow steppe, Eremkin Log valley, upland oak forest, forb meadow steppe. The small mammals investigated in this present parasitological study were caught using snap traps. These traps were established in lines of 50 or 100 traps per line. In addition, single traps and cone-shape pitfall traps (average length of 30 m) were used. The caught rodents (118 specimens) concern five species: Myodes glareolus, Microtus arvalis, Sylvaemus flavicollis, Sylvaemus uralensis, and Apodemus agrarius. The total prevalence by helminthes was 72%. About 91% of the Muridae animals were infected, while the prevalence of infestation was 55.6% among the Cricetidae specimens. We registered 20 helminth taxa belonging to three classes, six orders, and 12 families. Among the trematodes only eurixenous species were found. Among the cestodes, eurixenous species predominated. Among the nematodes, eurixenous and stenoxenous species were present in almost equal proportion. Dominant species are characterised by maximal values of prevalence of infestation. There were Hymenolepis sp. (17%) among Plathelminthes, species of Syphacia (35.6%) and Heligmosomoides (27.1%) among Nematoda, including Syphacia stroma (17%) and Heligmosomoides polygyrus (14.4%). The other helminth species registered in the present study were either small in number (with prevalence of invasion from 2% to 14%) or rare (with prevalence of invasion less than 2%). Platynosomum muris (Trematoda, Dicrocoeliidae) and Pterothominx sadovskoi (Nematoda, Capillariidae) were reported for the first time in the Central Chernozem Region of Russia.

Helminths in Myomorph Rodents (Rodentia, Myomorpha) from the National Park “Smolny” and Its Surroundings (European Russia)

“…Despite the relatively high helminth diversity observed in the myomorph rodents from the National Park "Smolny", it still does not reach its maximum, since more than 80 species of parasitic worms are known for small wild rodents in European Russia [9,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]45,77,[86][87][88]. Thus, we have registered 39 helminth species in the myomorph rodents from the Samarskaya Luka, located 300 km south-east [27,28,34,77].…”

“…In the Central Chernozem Reserve, 32 species of helminths were observed in myomorph rodents [32]. For small rodents of the Belogorye State Nature Reserve, 20 species of parasites were indicated [9]. Fifteen species of parasitic worms were found in myomorph rodents from the Mordovia State Nature Reserve [33].…”

“…Helminths live in all vertebrates, including small rodents. Their species composition, age and seasonal infection rates serve to understand the changes that may occur in ecosystems [8][9][10].…”

“…Considering that full-scale helminthological studies of vertebrates in the National Park "Smolny" have not previously been carried out, the trend of parasitological research associated with the inventory of animal helminth fauna as one of the stages of the inventory of the fauna of protected areas, monitoring and preserving biological diversity is relevant [9,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Structure of helminth fauna in Apodemus uralensis (Pallas, 1771) from natural and anthropized ecosystems of the Republic of Moldova

“…Helminths, by interacting with different groups of animals through various ecological connections, form parasite-host systems with increased bioecological stability and represent models for studying the diversity and variability of parasite-host biosystems [23]. Quantitative and qualitative changes of parasite species, age and seasonal infection rates of hosts, characterize the specific changes of certain ecoparasitological situations in different types of ecosystems [7,13,14,15].…”