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Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany

Alongside exotic reptiles, amphibians, such as toads, frogs, salamanders, and newts, are nowadays considered popular pets worldwide. As reported for other exotic pet animals, amphibians are known to harbor numerous gastrointestinal parasites. Nonetheless, very little data are available on captive am...

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Autores principales: Hallinger, Malek J., Taubert, Anja, Hermosilla, Carlos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32960371
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06876-0
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author Hallinger, Malek J.
Taubert, Anja
Hermosilla, Carlos
author_facet Hallinger, Malek J.
Taubert, Anja
Hermosilla, Carlos
author_sort Hallinger, Malek J.
collection PubMed
description Alongside exotic reptiles, amphibians, such as toads, frogs, salamanders, and newts, are nowadays considered popular pets worldwide. As reported for other exotic pet animals, amphibians are known to harbor numerous gastrointestinal parasites. Nonetheless, very little data are available on captive amphibian parasitic diseases. In this study, we applied direct saline fecal smears (DSFS) to examine in total 161 stool samples from 41 different amphibian species belonging to the orders Anura and Caudata. In addition, carbolfuchsin-smear (CFS) staining (n = 74 samples) was used to detect amphibian Cryptosporidium oocysts. Also, complete dissections of deceased amphibians (n = 107) were performed to specify parasite infections and to address parasite-associated pathogenicity. Overall, examined amphibian fecal samples contained 12 different parasite taxa. The order Rhabditida with the species Rhabdias spp. and Strongyloides spp. were the most prevalent nematode species (19.3%), followed by flagellated protozoans (8.7%), Amphibiocapillaria spp./Neocapillaria spp. (7.5%), Oswaldocruzia spp. (4.3%), Blastocystis spp. (3.1%), Cosmocerca spp. (3.1%), oxyurids (Pharyngonoidae) (3.1%), spirurids (1.2%), un-sporulated coccidian oocysts (0.6%), Tritrichomonas spp. (0.6%), Karotomorpha spp. (0.6%), and Cryptosporidium spp. (0.6%). One CFS-stained fecal sample (1.4%) was positive for Cryptosporidium oocysts. Within dissected amphibians, 31 (48.4%) of the anurans and 11 (26.2%) of the salamanders were infected with gastrointestinal parasites. One cutaneous Pseudocapillaroides xenopi infection was diagnosed in an adult African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). Etiologically, 17 (15.9%) of them died due to severe parasitic and/or bacterial infections (e.g., Chryseobacterium indologenes, Citrobacter freudii, Sphingobacterium multivorum, Klebsiella pneumoniae). High prevalence and pathological findings of several clinical amphibian parasitoses call for more detailed investigation on gastrointestinal parasite-derived molecular mechanisms associated with detrimental lesions or even death.
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spelling pubmed-75781722020-10-27 Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany Hallinger, Malek J. Taubert, Anja Hermosilla, Carlos Parasitol Res Helminthology - Original Paper Alongside exotic reptiles, amphibians, such as toads, frogs, salamanders, and newts, are nowadays considered popular pets worldwide. As reported for other exotic pet animals, amphibians are known to harbor numerous gastrointestinal parasites. Nonetheless, very little data are available on captive amphibian parasitic diseases. In this study, we applied direct saline fecal smears (DSFS) to examine in total 161 stool samples from 41 different amphibian species belonging to the orders Anura and Caudata. In addition, carbolfuchsin-smear (CFS) staining (n = 74 samples) was used to detect amphibian Cryptosporidium oocysts. Also, complete dissections of deceased amphibians (n = 107) were performed to specify parasite infections and to address parasite-associated pathogenicity. Overall, examined amphibian fecal samples contained 12 different parasite taxa. The order Rhabditida with the species Rhabdias spp. and Strongyloides spp. were the most prevalent nematode species (19.3%), followed by flagellated protozoans (8.7%), Amphibiocapillaria spp./Neocapillaria spp. (7.5%), Oswaldocruzia spp. (4.3%), Blastocystis spp. (3.1%), Cosmocerca spp. (3.1%), oxyurids (Pharyngonoidae) (3.1%), spirurids (1.2%), un-sporulated coccidian oocysts (0.6%), Tritrichomonas spp. (0.6%), Karotomorpha spp. (0.6%), and Cryptosporidium spp. (0.6%). One CFS-stained fecal sample (1.4%) was positive for Cryptosporidium oocysts. Within dissected amphibians, 31 (48.4%) of the anurans and 11 (26.2%) of the salamanders were infected with gastrointestinal parasites. One cutaneous Pseudocapillaroides xenopi infection was diagnosed in an adult African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). Etiologically, 17 (15.9%) of them died due to severe parasitic and/or bacterial infections (e.g., Chryseobacterium indologenes, Citrobacter freudii, Sphingobacterium multivorum, Klebsiella pneumoniae). High prevalence and pathological findings of several clinical amphibian parasitoses call for more detailed investigation on gastrointestinal parasite-derived molecular mechanisms associated with detrimental lesions or even death. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-09-22 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7578172/ /pubmed/32960371 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06876-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Helminthology - Original Paper
Hallinger, Malek J.
Taubert, Anja
Hermosilla, Carlos
Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title_full Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title_fullStr Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title_full_unstemmed Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title_short Endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (Anura, Caudata) in Germany
title_sort endoparasites infecting exotic captive amphibian pet and zoo animals (anura, caudata) in germany
topic Helminthology - Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7578172/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32960371
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06876-0
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