engleski

Morphological and molecular identification of golden jackal intestinal parasite

During the recent years there is a growing research interest for golden jackal (Canis aureus), as this medium sized wild canid is spreading rapidly across the Europe. Historically, in Croatia this species was present in southern Dalmatia and occasionally individuals were seen and hunted in parts of Slavonia, but nowadays the population is present almost along entire Adriatic coast and in continental part of the country. The goal of our research was to investigate gastrointestinal parasitic fauna of golden jackals in Croatia, so we performed necropsy on 30 adult animals collected by hunters following regular hunting operations. Intestinal content was examined and collected parasites were identified under the stereomicroscope based on their morphology. On the basis of morphological identification, for each sample species or genus specific primers were used to amplify DNA regions appropriate for molecular identification. Obtained DNA sequences were compared to the ones available in the GenBank. Due to the significant degradation of collected material identification to the species level was not possible for some samples. The following intestinal parasites were found in 16 (53, 3%) examined jackals (% prevalence in all analyzed samples): Taeniaserialis (26, 7%), Uncinaria stenocephala (16, 7%), Alaria alata (16, 7%), Opistorchiidae spp. (16, 7%), Toxocara canis (10%), Mesocestoides litteratus (6, 7%), Strongyllida spp. (6, 7%), Toxascaris leonina (3, 4%) and Echinococcus multilocularis (3, 4%). All of the identified parasites were previously described in jackals in Europe, but E. multilocularis was only recently identified in Croatia for the first time in red foxes. So, this is important indication that this dangerous zoonotic parasite might be more common in Croatia than previously thought.

Canis aureus

nije evidentirano