Metazoan Endoparasites of the Gray Fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus from New Mexico

Abstract

All parasites found are new records for the gray fox in New Mexico. The parasites, Porocephalus sp, Fasciola hepatica, Toxocara mystax and Mesocestoides kirbyi are new records for the gray fox for North America.

Gray fox ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus ) parasite diversity in central Mexico

“…Our results on the parasite community show that the diversity of parasites of the gray fox in the PANEC comprises primarily generalist species, of which, most of them have a direct life cycle not requiring intermediate hosts, with life cycles with several transmission strategies as paratenic hosts, autoinfection or transplacental transmission such as in U. stenocephala or Strongyloides s tercoralis life cycles ( Anderson, 2000 ). Our data differs from those in studies conducted in the United States regarding the parasite community of Urocyon cinereoargenteus , where many of the parasite species have complex life cycles, requiring at least two species of intermediate hosts ( Conti, 1984 , Dyer, 1984 , Anderson, 2000 , Ubelaker et al., 2015 ).…”

“…There are few studies focused on the parasites of the gray fox in México ( Pineda-López, 1984 , Hernández-Camacho et al., 2010 , Hernández-Camacho et al., 2011 , Hernández-Camacho et al., 2012 and 2015 ), and the majority of the information available for this carnivore covers traditional aspects concerning feeding habits ( Guerrero et al., 2002 ), spatial ecology ( González-Pérez et al., 1992 , Hernández-Camacho and López-González, 2009 ), or evolution ( Arroyo-Cabrales and Carranza-Castañeda, 2009 ). In the United States, however, there is considerable information on the parasites of this host ( Buechner, 1944 , Simmons et al., 1980 , Dyer, 1984 , Rogers, 1984 , Davidson et al., 1992a Davidson et al., 1992b , Steelman et al., 1998 , Steelman et al., 2000 , Allen et al., 2011 , Oates et al., 2012 , Rosypal et al., 2013 , and Ubelaker et al., 2015 ). The objective of our study was to generate basic information of the diversity of the parasite community of Urocyon cinereoargenteus in a remaining fragment of tropical highland deciduous forest in the state of Querétaro.…”