Helminths of the digestive tract in Buteo buteo (Falconiformes: Falconidae)in Bursa Province of Northwest Turkey

Abstract

IntroductionTurkey has 97 Important Bird Areas (IBAs), which cover a total of 29.978 km 2 , or 4% of the total land area. The country is divided into 7 major geographical regions, each with different climates, habitats, flora, and fauna. The study area, Bursa, is located along the Marmara Sea. This province, which lies along migratory flyways, is an important transit area for migratory birds and contains 4 IBAs (Magnin et al., 2000).Members of the genus Buteo are primarily residents or short-distance migrants. The common buzzard (Buteo buteo) is a medium-to-large bird of prey whose range covers most of Europe and extends into Asia. The subspecies Vulpinus (steppe buzzard) generally uses the south of Turkey as its wintering area, except the southeastern region (Heinzel et al., 1995).Buzzards eat various small mammals and amphibians, including rabbits, snakes, and lizards, as well as worms and insects. As a result of these dietary habits, it is likely that they are frequently exposed to larval or adult parasites. Parasites can affect the health and productivity of wild birds to different degrees. While most helminths infect wild birds without causing much damage, heavy infections can result in reduced performance and increased mortality Materials and methods Study areaThe study area is located in the southeast of the Marmara region (40°11′N, 29°04′E) and is characterized by hot and dry summers with some rainfall. The mean annual Abstract: Raptors can be parasitized by numerous helminth species due to their feeding behavior. When the parasite load is high, the bird's life can be affected. A total of 21 common buzzards, Buteo buteo, from different districts of Bursa, in Northwest Turkey, were examined for helminth infections. The results of the postmortem examination revealed that 15 of 21 buzzards (71.43%) harbored 1 or more helminth species. Seven species/genera of helminths were detected at the following prevalence rates: ascarid larvae (47.62%), Strigea falconis (38.09%), Neodiplostomum attenuatum (33.33%), Cladotaenia globifera (14.29%), Centrorhynchus amphibius (14.29%), Physaloptera alata (9.52%), and Synhimantus laticeps (4.76%). The most common helminth species was S. falconis, which was found in the small intestine of its hosts. This study is the first report to describe the presence of N. attenuatum, S. falconis, C. globifera, P. alata, and C. amphibius in the common buzzards of Turkey. This study is also the first to report the presence of S. laticeps in common buzzards, although this helminth had been previously reported in a sparrow hawk in Turkey.

Parasites, Bacteria, and Associated Pathological Changes in the Digestive System of Diurnal and Nocturnal Raptors in Central Italy

“…Most of the pathogens identified in this study are commonly found in European diurnal and nocturnal raptors [8,23,24,30,35,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46].…”

Morphological and Molecular Identification of Physaloptera alata (Nematoda: Spirurida) in a Booted Eagle (Aquila pennata) from Portugal

“…Despite the available information, most of these previous studies were restricted to sole reports of parasite presence in a certain species, with small sample sizes [1][2][3][4][13][14][15]18,31,32]. In these studies, parasite species differentiation was based on morphological features only.…”

Intestinal helminths of the white stork (Ciconia ciconia Linnaeus 1758) from an inter-route site in Turkey

“…This is due to the fact that white storks, like some other migratory birds, are under protection and, therefore, their hunting is prohibited throughout the year. Thus, there are only a few studies about the intestinal helminths of some wild birds in Turkey (Umur et al, 2010;Tezel et al, 2015).…”