Prevalence of intestinal cestode infections of conventionally maintained laboratory (albino) and house mice in Kalar district / Sulaymaniyah province

Abstract

Mice (Mus musculus), mammalian rodent animals belonging to the order Rodentia, family Muridae, represent one group of the most important reservoir hosts for human pathogens. In this study, a total of 127 mice were necropsied for intestinal cestode infections. Ten of them were conventionally maintained laboratory mice and the remaining 117 were house mice and collected between July 2009 and October 2016 in numerous storages of hay, rice, cereals, flour, as well as in houses from different regions of Kalar district. Six out of 10 laboratory mice were found infected with Hymenolepis nana, family Hymenolepididae, with the prevalence rate of 60%. Non-significant differences were found between both sexes. On the other hand, only one house mouse was found infected with H. nana with infection rate of 0.85%. In addition to this cestode, house mice were found infected with two unidentified cestodes from the family Cataenotaenidae, with the overall infection rate of 12.82% (15 out of 117 house mice). The overall prevalence rates of infections were 7.46% and 20% in male and female house mice; respectively. Significant differences were observed between overall prevalence of Cataenotaenidae species in infected male and female house mice. In addition, the results of this study showed that there were significant differences (P<0.01) between overall infection of laboratory and house mice regarding cestode infections. To sum up, laboratory mice were found infected with intestinal cestodes of public health concern and these might contaminate the environment, infect other animals and humans in the laboratory, and affect the accuracy of the experimental results. Therefore, an appropriate management and control of diseases in these animals, prior to the experiment, must be considered. Other cestodes were also identified belonging to the family Cataenotaenidae but it was not possible to identify them at species level due to lack of a proper morphological guide. Further study will be required to identify these parasites at species level using molecular methods. Article Info