Abstract
A nematode species from the Protostrongylidae family, unknown in the parasite fauna of Bulgaria until now, was found in the bronchi of a European brown hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778 L.) from a southwestern region of the country. At first the systematic identification of the found specimens was attributed to two possibilities—Protostrongylus terminalis Passerini (1884) Schulz, Orlow & Kutass, 1933 and Protostrongylus cuniculorum (Joyeux & Gaud, 1946) Schulz & Kadenazii, 1949. The autonomy of these two species was discussed based on data available in the literature. Morphological and morphometric data about the male and female specimens are provided in the present materials. After comparing these data with the ones available in the literature, the helminths were related to the species P. cuniculorum. P. cuniculorum is reported for the first time as part of the helminth fauna of the European brown hare from Southeastern Europe and Bulgaria in particular.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allgower R (1992) Der Parasitenbefall von Feldhasen aus der Oberrheinebene und seine intraspezifische Bedeutung. Z Jagdwiss 38:116–127
Babos S (1961) Zur Kenntnis der Protostrongylosen der Leporiden, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der in Ungarn vorkommenden Protostrongylus. Ancn Helminthol 3:13–37
Barbiera A (1960) Su alcuni casi di strongilosi polmonare della lepre. Indagini parassitolo-giche. Ann Facolta di Medicina Veterinaria 13:19–25
Blasco S, Torres J, Feliu C, Casanova JC, Miquel J, Moreno S (1996) The helminthfauna of Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Iberian Peninsula. Faunistic and ecological considerations. Parasite 4:327–333
Boev SN (1950) Contribution to the classification of the lung nematodes of the genus Protostrongylus Kamensky, 1905. Trudy Gel'mintologicheskoi Laboratorii AN SSSR 4:64–67 (in Russian)
Boev SN (1975) Protostrongylidi. In: Rijikov K (ed) Osnovy nematodologii, XXV vol. Izdatelstvo Nauka, Moskva 264 pp (in Russian)
Burgaz I (1970) A report on the presence of endoparasites of Lepus timidus L. and Lepus europaeus Pallas in Sweden. Nytt Magasin for Zoologi 18:100
Chroust K, Vodnansky M, Pikula J (2012) Parasite load of European brown hares in Austria and the Czech Republic. Vet Med 57:551–558
Costantini R, Manfredi MT, Iori A, Pacetti A (1990) Protostrongylus pulmonalis from hares (Lepus europaeus) in Italy. Parassitologia 32:353–357
Czaplinska D, Czaplinski B, Rutkowska M, Zebrowska D (1965) Studies on the European hare. IX. Helminth fauna in the annual cycle. Acta Theriologica Bialowieza 10:55–78
Fataliyev GG (2013) Helminthofauna hare Azerbaijan and their formation. Vesnik Zaporizkogo Nacionalnogo Universitetu 3:53–59
Forstner MJ, Ilg V (1982) Untersuchungen über die endoparasiten des Feldhasen (Lepus europaeus) und Versuche zu ihrer Bekämpfung. Z Jagdwiss 28:169–177
Frolich K, Wisser J, Schmuser H, Fehlberg U, Neubauer H, Grunow R, Nikolaou K, Priemer J, Thiede S, Streich WJ, Speck S (2003) Epizootologic and ecologic investigations of European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) in selected populations from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. J Wildl Dis 39:751–761
Genov Т (1970) Edin nov i opasen parasit po zaitsite u nas. Priroda 19:65–68 (in Bulgarian)
Gottschalk C (1973) Endoparasiten der feldhasen in ihrer rolle für die niederwildjagd Ostthuringens. Angew Parasitol 14:44–54
Ilic T, Petrovic T, Dimitrijevic S (2014) Parasitic infections of wild rabbits and hares. Vet Glasnik 68:241–250
Joyeux S, Gaud J (1946) Recherches helminthologiques Marocaines. Arch de l’Inst Pasteur du Maroc 3:383–461
Kontrimavichus VL, Deliamure SL, Boev SN (1976) Metastrongyloidei domashnih i dikih jivotnih. In: Rijikov K (ed) Osnovy nematodologii, XXVI vol. Izdatelstvo Nauka, Moskva 237 pp (in Russian)
Kornas S, Wierzbowska IA, Wajdzik M, Kowal J, Basiaga M, Nosal P (2014) Endoparasites of European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) from southern Poland based on necropsy. Ann Anim Sci 14:297–306
Kutzer E, Frey H (1976) Die parasiten der feldhasen (Lepus europaeus) in Österreich. Berl Munch Tierarztl Wochenschr 89:480–483
Lesage C, Jouet D, Patrelle C, Guitton JS, Decors A, Ferte H (2014) Protostrongylus pulmonalis (Frölich, 1802) and P. oryctolagi Baboš, 1955 (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae), parasites of the lungs of European hare (Lepus europaeus L.) in France: morphological and molecular approaches. Parasitol Res 113:2103–2111
Merkusheva IV (1960) The helminth fauna of Lepus europaeus and L. timidus in Byelorussian S.S.R. Trudy Nauchno-Issledovatelskogo Veterinarnogo Instituta 1:211–216 (in Russian)
Movsesyan SO, Panayotova-Pencheva MS, Demiaszkiewiz AW, Voronin MV (2016) Host-based formation of fauna of lung helminths, its biological and taxonomic classification. Russ J Parasitol 37:345–369
Nickel S, Gottwald A (1979) Parasites of the GDR. 3. Endoparasites of the hare (Lepus europaeus). Angew Parasitol 20:57–62
Panayotova-Pencheva M (2011) Species composition and morphology of protostrongylids (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae) in ruminants from Bulgaria. Parasitol Res 109:1015–1020
Panayotova-Pencheva M, Alexandrov M (2008) Morphometric characteristics of first stage Elaphostrongylus cervi (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae) larvae from Bulgaria. Eur J Wildl Res 54:771–774
Panayotova-Pencheva M, Trifonova A, Mirchev R, Zhelev Ch, Salkova D (2014) Actual data on Protostrongylus tauricus (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae) in materials from Bulgaria. In: Proceedings of the international scientific conference: "20 years Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Forestry", Izdatelska kashta pri LTU, Sofia, pp 238–244 (in Bulgarian)
Passerini N (1884) Sulla Filaria terminalis auctor. Atti Soc Ital Sci Nat 27:42–63
Rodonaia T (1967) On the study of helminthes of Lepus europaeus in Georgia. Gel’mintofauna Zhivotnykh i Rasteniĭ v Gruzii 98–104 (in Georgian)
Shults RS, Kadenazii АN (1949) Filogeneticheskie svyazi legochnih nematode grizunov i parnokopitnih. Dokladi AN SSSR 69:707–709
Sitko M, Mituch J, Konrad V, Spenik M (1970) Occurrence of Protostrongylus infection in hares and the pathological changes caused by it. Veterinarsky Casopis 13:163–167
Soveri T, Valtonern M (1983) Endoparasites of hares (Lepus timidus L. and L. europaeus Pallas) in Finland. J Wildl Dis 19:337–341
Yanchev Y (1970) Untersuchungen uber die helminthenfauna des feldhasen (Lepus europaeus Pall.) in Bulgarien. III. Materialen uber die helminthenfauna des feldhasen (Lepus europaeus Pall.) in Sudwestbulgarien. Bulletin de l’Institute de Zoologie et Musee 32:107–115 (in Bulgarian)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Panayotova-Pencheva, M., Dakova, V. & Trifonova, A. First report on Protostrongylus cuniculorum (Nematoda: Protostrongylidae) in the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus Pallas, 1778 L.) from Bulgaria. Parasitol Res 117, 3391–3397 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-6031-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-6031-3