Intestinal helminth communities of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes L.) in the Italian Alps

Abstract

The study analyses the intestinal helminth communities found in 645 red foxes of alpine populations from five areas of Northern Italy. In particular, the aim was to evaluate the contribution of both environmental variability and the structure of fox population (extrinsic and intrinsic factors, respectively) in shaping the structure and composition of the intestinal helminth communities. To identify the influence of the characteristics of the host (i.e. age and sex) together with extrinsic factors (year, site, season, and altitude of collection) on number of species, total load per fox, prevalence and abundance of each parasite species, general linear models were performed. Fifteen helminth species have been detected in the intestine of 545 infected animals (84.5%) with a total of 17,144 parasites collected. The analysis of factors influencing both prevalence and abundance of infection of the parasite species revealed the preponderance of extrinsic factors on intrinsic ones. In particular, geographical areas influenced prevalence and abundance of every parasite species, showing high spatial variability. The lower influence of host factors may suggest that, in this case, host dynamics play a trivial role with respect to spatial variability in determining parasite abundance. These results pointed out high prevalence of intestinal helminth infections in the Italian Alpine fox, confirmed the typical composition of parasite fauna within fox populations, underlined local differences in the structure and composition of the helminth communities. Moreover, this study highlights the major role of extrinsic factors vs intrinsic ones.

Helminth parasites of the red foxVulpes vulpes(L., 1758) and the wolfCanis lupus italicusAltobello, 1921 in Emilia-Romagna, Italy

“…More recently, Ferroglio et al (2012) described the infection in a dog from Aosta Valley. We did not find any other reports of this trematode in several parasitological surveys on Italian foxes (Soldati et al 1976;Rossi et al 1983;Poglayen et al 1985;Leoni et al 1986;Iori et al Guberti & Poglayen 1991;Capelli et al 2003;Manfredi et al 2003;Di Cerbo et al 2008;Magi et al 2009Magi et al , 2016. In the present study, the infection was observed in only three foxes (prevalence 5.3%; Table I), all living in lowlands rich in humid areas and channels, a suitable environment for the lifecycle development of the parasite ( Figure 2).…”

“…In Italy it was reported mainly from northern regions (Rossi et al 1983;Iori et al 1990;Guberti & Poglayen 1991;Capelli et al 2003;Di Cerbo et al 2008). The larval stage of T. crassiceps (Cysticercus longicollis) usually lodges in the subcutis of different species of rodents, mainly microtines such as Microtus arvalis (Pétavy & Deblock 1980;Loos-Frank & Zeyhle 1982;Sikó Barabási et al 2010).…”

“…Similar prevalences in foxes were reported in Portugal (Eira et al 2006: 3.2% of 62 foxes) and, despite a higher number of animals, in Haute-Savoie and Cantal, France (Deblock et al 1988: 4% of 154 foxes; Pétavy et al 1990: 5% of 150 foxes), Liguria, Italy (Magi et al 2016: 5.6% of 180 foxes) and Slovenia (Vergles Rataj et al 2013: 4.2% of 428 foxes). In Italy we have reports from several northern regions (Iori et al 1990;Capelli et al 2003;Manfredi et al 2003;Di Cerbo et al 2008;Magi et al 2016) and Sardinia (Leoni et al 1986: Rictularia sp. ), but not from Emilia-Romagna.…”

“…Prey availability and geographical setting may influence the parasitic fauna of these animals. Moreover, red foxes are potential reservoir of zoonotic helminth species as several authors have demonstrated in Europe (Loos-Frank & Zeyhle 1982;Richards et al 1995;Papadopoulos et al 1997;Segovia et al 2004;Vervaeke et al 2005;Letková et al 2006;Saeed et al 2006;Sikó Barabási et al 2010;Bružinskaitė-Schmidhalter et al 2012), including Italy (Guberti & Poglayen 1991;Capelli et al 2003;Di Cerbo et al 2008;Macchioni et al 2012). The aim of this study was to analyse the gastro-intestinal and hepatic helminthic fauna of red foxes from Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy.…”

Stability of the southern European border ofEchinococcus multilocularisin the Alps: evidence thatMicrotus arvalisis a limiting factor

“…The E. multilocularis endemic areas in northern Italy are adjacent to the Austrian ones, where the parasite seems to be ubiquitously distributed (Duscher et al 2006). No records exist further south in the Italian peninsula (Di Cerbo et al 2008;Magi et al 2009). Towards east and southeast, the parasite is known to be present in Slovenia (Rataj et al 2010), Hungary (Sreter et al 2003) and in adjacent areas in north-western Romania (Sikó et al 2011).…”