Volume 212, Issues 3–4, 15 September 2015, Pages 448–450
Highlights
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- Trichinella spp. prevalence in foxes of western Romania is high.
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- Trichinella britovi is the main species circulating in foxes.
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- Foxes do not play an important role for Trichinella spp. infection in pigs.
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- Hunters can spread Trichinella infected game carcasses in the environment.
Abstract
Nematode worms of the genus Trichinella
are zoonotic parasites with a worldwide distribution. The majority of
the biomass of these nematodes circulates among wildlife, but when
humans fail in the proper management of domestic animals and wildlife, Trichinella
infections are transmitted from the sylvatic to the domestic
environment. Such failures occur in Romania, where a high prevalence of Trichinella spiralis has been detected in domestic pigs. The aim of the present study was to provide data about the prevalence of Trichinella spp. infections in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) that are hunted in Romanian counties, in which the prevalences of Trichinella
spp. infection in backyard and free-ranging pigs range from 0.17 to
2.5%, to determine the role played by this carnivore species in the
transmission of the parasite to domestic cycle. A total of 121 animals
from 45 hunting grounds of three counties were screened to detect Trichinella
spp. larvae by the digestion method. Infections were detected in 26
(21.5%) foxes from 18 (40%) hunting grounds of the three counties (13/67
in Arad, 1/3 in Hunedoara, and 12/51 in Timiş). The mean larval density
was 10.5 larvae per gram. Of the 25 successfully tested samples, the Trichinella larvae from 24 isolates were identified as T. britovi (96%), and the larvae from one isolate were identified as T. spiralis (4%). No mixed infections were recorded. The present results revealed that the red fox should be considered an important T. britovi reservoir in the sylvatic cycle; in contrast, the detection of only a single T. spiralis-positive
isolate suggests that red foxes play a minor role in the epidemiology
of the domestic cycle in the investigated area of western Romania.
Keywords
- Trichinella;
- Sylvatic cycle;
- Domestic cycle;
- Red fox;
- Romania
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
