The dwarf tapeworm Hymenolepis nana in pet rodents in Slovakia—epidemiological survey and genetic analysis

Jarošová, Júlia; Antolová, Daniela; Šnábel, Viliam; Miklisová, Dana; Cavallero, Serena

doi:10.1007/s00436-019-06565-7

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Kontogiorgi et al, 2013;Kumari et al, 2014) are factors contributing to depression of the immune system and may enhance the development of infections with parasites such as H. microstoma in humans. To date, the majority of published surveys in free-living and domestic small mammals reported the occurrence of hymenolepidid tapeworms based on coprological examination (Jarošová et al, 2020). Due to striking morphological similarity of the eggs of H. microstoma and H. nana that are difficult to distinguish by morphology alone (Fitzgerald et al, 1970;Macnish, 2001), it is possible that some infections of H. microstoma in animals and humans may have been previously misdiagnosed as H. nana (Whary et al, 2015;Riebold et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mouse bile duct tapeworm, Hymenolepis microstoma in free-living small mammals in Slovakia: occurrence and genetic analysis

et al. 2019

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SummaryThe mouse bile duct tapeworm Hymenolepis microstoma, is a potentially zoonotic species with a wide variety of reported definitive hosts of rodent genera. In the present study the occurrence of H. microstoma in free-living small mammals in selected areas of Slovakia and the retrospective analysis of epidemiological data published in Slovakia were performed. Hymenolepis microstoma was detected in two animal species, the common shrew (Sorex araneus) and the European hamster (Cricetus cricetus) of 186 small mammals examined from two ecosystems, urban and natural ecosystem of national park. No mention about the presence of this parasite in Slovakia in the past was found following a bibliographical search. Partial sequences of the nuclear paramyosin gene showed the shrew isolate placed in a subclade together with H. microstoma from Portugal, with high bootstrap value for its differentiation from the sister species Hymenolepis nana. Similarly, the analysis of the nuclear ribosomal ITS region placed the hamster isolate in the cluster composed of H. microstoma from Australia, Spain and Portugal. The Slovak isolate was the most distinctive sample among available H. microstoma, differing in 1.4 – 1.9% of nucleotides from the remaining isolates. The difference (seven of 17 nucleotide positions) was partially due to indel polymorphisms associated with two and five nucleotides. To our knowledge, these are the first reports of H. microstoma in Central Europe and also the first record of infection in the common shrew. A recently indicated zoonotic potential of H. microstoma along with a possibility of its direct transmission between animals and/or humans without the need of intermediate hosts pose a public health concern in contaminated areas of Slovakia. The use of molecular techniques may substantially facilitate more thorough understanding of the epidemiological situation of H. microstoma and related tapeworms in various ecosystems of the country.

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