Abstract
We present data on the species composition of helminths in brown bears (Ursus arctos) from the Murmansk Region, Russia. The absence of any information about helminths of brown bear in the region necessitated the conduct of these studies. Samples were collected in 2014 and 2015 in the southern part of the Kola Peninsula from the White Sea coastal habitats. Annually, in the study area, 1–3 bears are legally hunted and biological samples for examination are very difficult to obtain. Therefore, we used fecal samples. We studied 93 feces and identified parasite eggs identified in 43 of them by morphometric criteria. The surveys revealed eggs of the following helminths: Dicrocoelium sp., Diphyllobothrium sp., Anoplocephalidae, Capillariidae, Baylisascaris sp., Strongylida 1, and Strongylida 2. These results represent the first reconnaissance stage, which allowed characterizing the taxonomic diversity and prevalence of parasites of brown bears of the Kola Peninsula.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aghazadeh M, Elson-Riggins J, Reljić S, De Ambrogi M, Huber D, Majnarić D, Hermosilla C (2015) Gastrointestinal parasites and the first report of Giardia spp. in a wild population of European brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Croatia. Veterinarski Arhiv 85:201–210
Andersen K, Halvorsen O (1978) Egg size and form as taxonomic criteria in Diphyllobothrium (Cestoda, Pseudophyllidea). Parasitology 76:229–240
Andreassen R, Schregel J, Kopatz A, Tobiassen C, Knappskog PM, Hagen SB, Kleven O, Schneider M, Kojola I, Aspi J, Rykov A, Tirronen KF, Danilov PI, Eiken HG (2012) A forensic DNA profiling system for Northern European brown bears (Ursus arctos)//Forensic Science International. Genetics 6:798–809. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2012.03.002
Arizono N, Shedko M, Yamada M, Uchikawa R, Tegoshi T, Takeda K, Hashimoto K (2009) Mitochondrial DNA divergence in populations of the tapeworm Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense and its phylogenetic relationship with Diphyllobothrium klebanovskii. Parasitol Int 58:22–28. doi:10.1016/j.parint.2008.09.001
Burdelev TE (1953) Studies of the seasonal dynamics of major helminth infections in carnivores in the Moscow Zoo. In: Collected papers on Helminthology, in Honor of Academician K.I. Skryabin’s 75th Anniversary. Moscow, pp 93–98 (in Russian)
Catalano S, Lejeune M, Tizzani P, Verocai GG, Schwantje H, Nelson C, Duignan PJ (2015) Helminths of grizzly and black bears in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Can J Zool 93:765–772. doi:10.1139/cjz-2015-0063
Choi S, Cho J, Jung B-K, Kim D-G, Jeon SJ, Jeon H-K, Eom KS, Chai J-Y (2015) Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense: wide egg size variation in 32 molecularly confirmed adult specimens from Korea. Parasitol Res 114:2129–2134. doi:10.1007/s00436-015-4401-7
De Ambrogi M, Aghazadeh M, Hermosilla C, Huber D, Majnaric D, Reljic S, Elson-Riggins J (2011) Occurrence of Baylisascaris transfuga in wild populations of European brown bears (Ursus arctos) as identified by a new PCR method. Vet Parasitol 179:272–276. doi:10.1016/j.vetpar.2011.02.025
Delamure SL, Skryabin AS, Serdiukov AM (1985) Diphyllobothriata—flatworm parasites of man, mammals and birds. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian)
Elmore SA, Lalonde LF, Samelius G, Alisauskas RT, Gajadhar AA, Jenkins EJ (2013) Endoparasites in the feces of arctic foxes in a terrestrial ecosystem in Canada. International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 2:90–96. doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2013.02.005
Esaulova NV, Naidenko SV, Lukarevskii VS, Hernandez-Blanco JА, Sorokin PА, Litvinov МN, Kotlyar АК, Rozhnov VV (2010) The parasite fauna of carnivores in Ussuriisky reserve. Russian Journal of Parasitology (4):22–28 (in Russian)
Esaulova NV, Seryodkin IV, Konyaev SV, Malkina AV, Borisov MY (2012) Fauna of Bear’s helminthes from Sakhalin island and south of Russian Far East. Russian Journal of Veterinary Small pets and wild animals (4):16–19 (in Russian)
Foster GW, Cunningham MW, Kinsella JM, Forrester DJ (2004) Parasitic helminths of black bear cubs (Ursus americanus) from Florida. J Parasitol 90:173–175. doi:10.1645/GE-127R
Gau RJ, Kutz SJ, Elkin BT (1999) Parasites in grizzly bears from the Central Canadian Arctic. J Wildl Dis 35:618–621. doi:10.7589/0090-3558-35.3.618
Gibson D, Bray R, Hunt D, Georgiev B, Scholz T, Harris P, Bakke T, Pojmanska T, Niewiadomska K, Kostadinova A, Tkach V, Bain O, Durette-Desset M, Gibbons L, Moravec F, Petter A, Dimitrova Z, Buchmann K, Valtonen E, de Jong Y (2014) Fauna Europaea: helminths (animal parasitic). Biodiversity Data Journal 2:e1060. doi:10.3897/BDJ.2.e1060
Gubanov NM (1964) Fauna of helminthes in Yakutia game mammals. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian)
Ivashkin VM, Kontrimavichius VL, Nazarova NS (1971) Methods for collection and study of helminths in terrestrial mammals. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian)
Kozlov DP (1977) Analysis of the helminthes of predatory mammals of the USSR. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian)
Linacre A, Gusmão L, Hecht W, Hellmann AP, Mayr WR, Parson W, Prinz M, Schneider PM, Morling N (2011) ISFG: recommendations regarding the use of non-human (animal) DNA in forensic genetic investigations. Forensic Science International-Genetics 5:501–505. doi:10.1016/j.fsigen.2010.10.017
Maslennikova OV, Kolevatova AI (2004) Helminth fauna of carnivores (Canidae, Ursidae, Felidae) in Kirov region. Proc Institute of Gelmintology 40:190–199 (in Russian)
Mitenev VK, Schulman BS (1999) Parasites of fish in the Murmansk region. Systematic catalog, PINRO, Murmansk (in Russian)
Page LK, Gehrt SD, Titcombe KK, Robinson NP (2005) Measuring prevalence of raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis): a comparison of common techniques. Wild life Society Bulletin 33:1406–1412. doi:10.2193/0091-7648(2005)33[1406:MPORRB]2.0.CO;2
Pasechnik VE (2010) Distribution and specific structure of helminths and coccidia at brown bears in the Russian Federation. Russian Journal of Parasitology (1):15–21 (in Russian)
Pence DB, Crum JM, Conti J (1983) Ecological analyses of helminth populations in the black bear, Ursus americanus, from North America. J Parasitol 69:933–950
Rausch RL (1954) Studies on the helminth fauna of Alaska. XXI. Taxonomy, morphological variation, and ecology of Diphyllobothrium ursi n. sp. Provis on Kodiak Island. J Parasitol 40:540–563
Rausch RL, Krechmar AV, Rausch VR (1979) New records of helminths from the brown bear, Ursus arctos L., in the Soviet Far East. Can J Zool 57:1238–1243
Reed C, Henke SE, Kresta AE (2012) Frequency of deposition and location of Baylisascaris procyonis eggs in raccoon feces. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 48:190–94. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7589/0090–3558-48.1.190
Rogers LL, Rogers SM (1976) Parasites of bears: a review. In: Pelton MR, Lentfer JW, Folk GE (eds) Bears—their biology and management. Papers of the Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Paper, vol 42. IUCN, Morges, pp 411–430
Ruhlyadev DN, Ruhlyadeva MP (1953) To study fauna of helminthes in brown bear. In: Collected papers on helminthology, in honor of academician K.I. Skryabin’s 75th Anniversary. Moscow, pp 598-602 (in Russian)
Rumyantsev EA, Ieshko EP (1997) Parasites of fishes in water bodies of the Karelia. KarRC RAS, Petrozavodsk (in Russian)
Scholz T, Garcia HH, Kuchta R, Wicht B (2009) Update on the human broad tapeworm (genus Diphyllobothrium), including clinical relevance. Clin Microbiol Rev 22:146–160. doi:10.1128/CMR.00033-08
Taberlet P, Cammara J, Griffin S, Uhrès E, Hanotte O, Waits L, Dubois-Paganon C, Burke T, Bouvet J (1997) Noninvasive genetic tracking of the endangered Pyrenean brown bear population. Mol Ecol 6:869–876. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294X.1997.00251.x
Tirronen KF, Panchenko DV, Kuznetsova AS (2015) Brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) of the White sea of the Kola Peninsula. Herald of game management 12:125–136 (in Russian)
Tranbenkova NA (2006) Helminth infestations in the Brown bear of Kamchatka. In: Seryodkin IV, Paczkowski J, Shuntov VP, Raygorodetsky GR (eds) Kamchatka brown bear: ecology, conservation, and sustainable use. Dal’nauka, Vladivostok, pp 137–141
Vavilova OV, Korablev NP, Volkov NO, Ogurtsov SS (2015) Helminths of large predators in central forest state natural biosphere reserve. Gerald of Tver State University. Series: Biology and Ecology (4):40–47 (in Russian)
Worley DE, Fox JC, Winters JB, Jacobson RH, Greer KR (1976) Helminth and arthropod parasites of grizzly and black bears in Montana and adjacent areas. In: Pelton MR, Lentfer JW, Folk GE (eds) Bears—their biology and management. Papers of the Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management. Paper 45. IUCN, Morges, pp 455–464
Zajac AM, Conboy GA (2012) Veterinary clinical parasitology, 8rd edn. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to A.A. Sushchuk, PhD, Researcher at the Laboratory of Animal and Plant Parasitology (Institute of Biology KarRC RAS) for determinations of free-living soil-dwelling nematodes, and P.E. Dekola (KarRC RAS) for assistance during the field season. The research was funded by federal budgetary allocations for implementation of state assignment (0221-2014-0030; 0221-2014-0037); and Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant (№ 14-04-31796).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bugmyrin, S.V., Tirronen, K.F., Panchenko, D.V. et al. Helminths of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in the Kola Peninsula. Parasitol Res 116, 1755–1760 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5456-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-017-5456-4