engleski

Trichinellosis in wolves from Croatia

The aimof the present study was to investigate the prevalence of Trichinella infection in wolves (Canis lupus) in a 17, 468 km2 area in Croatia.Muscle sampleswere collected from 67 wolves between 1996 and 2007 and analyzed by artificial digestion. Muscle larvae were detected in 21 wolves (31%) and genotyped bymultiplex PCR. Trichinella britovi was the predominant species confirmed in 90% (19 wolves) while Trichinella spiralis was detected in 9% (2 wolves). The presence of the so called ‘ ‘ domestic’ ’ Trichinella specieswas a surprise since, to date, only T. britovi had been reported in wild animals in this region. The larval burdens in infected animals ranged from 0.3 to 45.9 larvae per gram. The prevalence of infected animals varied by geographic region ; infected animalswere found in the region of Gorski Kotar (20%) which has very similar environment to the region of Lika, where almost allwolveswere found infected. Interestingly, this is the first report of infected wolves in Dalmatia.

Wolf (Canis lupus); Trichinella britovi; T. spiralis; Croatia

Special Issue: Selected papers presented at the 12th International Conference on Trichinellosis - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia Edited by Alvin A. Gajadhar, H.Ray Gamble, Dolores Hill, Albert Marinculic and Dante Zarlenga