Moniezia expansa y Moniezia benedeni una parasitosis en rumiantes: una visión general de sus aspectos vinculados a su taxonomía

Abstract

Moniezia species are a group of parasites with worldwide distribution that cause intestinal diseases in ruminant species characterized by decreased animal production and, in some cases, host death. A systematic bibliographic review was carried out under a qualitative approach of narrative design and descriptive scope on an overview of the importance of Moniezia expansa and Moniezia benedeni, as well as some aspects related to their taxonomy, the two main species responsible for gastrointestinal infections in ruminants. The main databases including Scopus, Web of Science, Taylor & Francis, PubMed, Latindex, SciELO, Dialnet, among others, were consulted using the Boolean logical operator. Gastrointestinal parasites were found to be one of the main threats that limit the development and profitability of the livestock industry in tropical and subtropical areas. Among the causative agents of gastrointestinal diseases, monieziasis, caused by Moniezia spp. constitutes a pathology with a higher frequency of occurrence among different species of livestock. There are limitations in the identification of M. expansa and M. benedeni when only morphological characters are used, so molecular techniques have shown potential to overcome the identification problems of these and other species belonging to this genus. The contributions of molecular biology are useful not only for inferring the phylogenetic relationships among cestodes but also for identifying suitable molecular markers for future studies on diagnosis, population genetics, and molecular ecology in Moniezia species. However, a greater number of studies on genetic markers are required to accurately identify Moniezia species and serve as a basis for taxonomic research.