Taenia spp

Bariselli, Simone, Maioli, Giulia, Pupillo, Giovanni, Calzolari, Mattia, Torri, Deborah, Cirasella, Letizia, Luppi, Andrea, Torreggiani, Camilla, Garbarino, Chiara, Barsi, Filippo, Rugna, Gianluca & Dottori, Michele, 2023, Identification and phylogenetic analysis of Taenia spp. parasites found in wildlife in the Emilia-Romagna region, northern Italy (2017 - 2022), International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 22, pp. 20-27 : 24

3.1. Prevalence of Taenia spp . findings

Among all the carcasses of wildlife animals we evaluated in the period of time considered, we found tapeworms macroscopically compatible with Taeniids in 31 carnivores, and 16 of them (12 wolves and four red foxes) were confirmed as Taenia spp . by PCR. 3 distinct adult cestodes were extracted from 1 wolf, so we analysed a total of 33 adult Taeniids from 31 animals.

Conversely, cystic formations macroscopically compatible with Taeniids larvae were found in 26 mammals, and PCR revealed positivity for Taenia spp . in 19 samples (10 wild boars, five roe deer, four hares).

Taenia spp . was confirmed in 35 animals (1.28% of animals examined at the Institute under the wildlife sanitary surveillance plan, as detailed in Table 3).

According to our data, the most frequently isolated species in the Emilia-Romagna region in the period considered was T. serialis , found in 11 wolves, one fox and three roe deer, followed by T. hydatigena , which was identified in two wolves, 10 wild boars and two roe deer. Other less frequently isolated species were T. pisiformis (isolated from four hares and one fox) and T. crassiceps (isolated from two foxes). In this calculation is included one wolf, which resulted infested by both T. serialis and T. hydatigena .

The percentage of isolation of each Taenia species is represented in the graph reported in Fig. 4 .

The locations of the carcasses resulted positive for Taenia spp . are reported in the map in Fig. 5.

Figures

Fig. 4. Percentage of isolation of different Taenia species.

Fig. 5. Geographical location of animals resulted positive for Taenia spp. Icons placed around circles are located in the same position, represented by the yellow point. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)