engleski

Relationship between the trematode Fascioloides magna and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) as aberrant host

Since its first description on the European soil in the livers of the wapiti deer, almost 150 years ago, large American liver fluke (Fascioloides magna) have, not just maintained, spread over substantial part of the continent. Reaching the favourable, flooded valleys of the Danube River, F. magna have spread quickly to majority of neighbouring countries, including Croatia. To maintain its life cycle this parasite requires intermediate and final host. The most suitable intermediate host is water snail (Galba truncatula), while final hosts can be divided into typical, aberrant and dead-end. Roe deer is aberrant host, whose interaction with parasite is extremely untoward, resulting mainly in death of the host, even in a single-fluke infection. Since the first description of F. magna in red deer from Šeprešhat area, a clear decline in roe deer population is observed. This decline coincides with the spread of the fluke, and F. magna stands as one of the factors that has led to this situation. Aim of this study was to present the prevalence of infection, characteristics of the roe deer fascioloidosis and characteristics of the hunting grounds where official ban of roe deer hunting was requested. According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture ban of thee roe deer hunting was requested in 2019/2020 season in 18 hunting grounds, due to the observed decline in roe deer population. Of that 5 hunting grounds are on the area of Sisak-Moslavina and Bjelovar-Bilogora County, 3 on the area of Osijek-Baranja County, 2 on the area of the County of Brod and Posavina and 1 on the area of Zagreb, Virovitica-Podravina and Vukovar-Srijem County. Recorded prevalence of infection was 17.6%. It must be considered that roe deer as territorial animal is under different risk of infection, depending on the characteristics of the soil, relief and presence of the water streams. According to the previous research red deer fascioloidosis is strongly related to climatic factors, namely precipitation and presence of the water on the ground. Due to the extremely negative outcome of the infection in roe deer it is necessary to follow development of the host-parasite interactions and apply measures to control red deer fascioloidosis in order to reduce environmental pressure and by that the consequent risk for roe deer. Study was fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation grant 8963 ‘’Host-pathogen interaction: differences in relation between three types of hosts to Fascioloides magna infection’’.

roe deer, Fascioloides magna, hunting ban, interaction host-parasite

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