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Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus in expanding wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations in Eastern Spain

  • Helminthology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Prevalence and temporal evolution of the infection by the acanthocephalan Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus is studied in the Valencian Community (Eastern Spain), a region only recently fully colonized by the expanding native Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa). For 8 years, a total of 1486 wild boars were sampled in order to look for the parasite. The mean prevalence was 20.7% (95% CI, 18.6–22.8; 307/1486). We observed an increasing trend through time, both in the number of wild boars and affected districts. The prevalence of M. hirudinaceus rose in parallel to the annual capture of wild boars, and its presence has been expanding towards the East. A hotspot of M. hirudinaceus is located to the west of the study area, in Muela de Cortes Game Reserve, where 89.6% of the wild boars were positive for the infection, constituting one of the world’s highest known prevalence areas.

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Additional data and materials are available under reviewers’ request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Iris García-Bacete and Ismael Pérez-López for their involvement and diligence in field tasks and to Danielle Greenspan and Paul John Schnyder for English language editing and revision. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments.

Funding

This research was partially supported by Banco Santander grant FUSPBS-PPC13/2016 and by Conselleria d’Agricultura, Medi Ambient, Canvi Climàtic i Desenvolupament Rural of Generalitat Valenciana, through the minor contracts 2013/21/187 and 2014/21/112.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Servicio de Análisis, Investigación, Gestión de Animales Silvestres (SAIGAS), Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU, CEU Universities, Alfara del Patriarca, Valencia, Spain

    Victor Lizana, Maria José Carrión & Jesus Cardells

  2. Wildlife Ecology & Health group (WE&H), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

    Victor Lizana & Jesus Cardells

  3. SaBio Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC—UCLM—JCCM), Ciudad Real, Spain

    Christian Gortazar

  4. Instituto Veterinario Oftalmológico, Barcelona, Spain

    Raquel Prats

  5. Servicio de Caza y Pesca, Conselleria d’Agricultura, Medi Ambient, Canvi Climàtic i Desenvolupament rural, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, Spain

    Miguel Angel Sáchez-Isarria

Authors
  1. Victor Lizana
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  2. Christian Gortazar
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  3. Raquel Prats
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  4. Miguel Angel Sáchez-Isarria
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  5. Maria José Carrión
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  6. Jesus Cardells
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Victor Lizana, Miguel Angel Sanchez-Isarria

Formal analysis and investigation: Victor Lizana, Raquel Prats, Jesus Cardells

Writing – original draft preparation: Victor Lizana, Maria Jose Carrion, Jesus Cardells

Writing – review and editing: Christian Gortazar

Funding acquisition: Miguel Angel Sanchez-Isarria

Supervision: Christian Gortazar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victor Lizana.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

All animal sampling took place post-mortem. The wildlife samples were obtained from hunter-harvested individuals that were hunted independently for our research. According to EU and National legislation (2010/63/UE Directive and Spanish Royal Decree 53/2013) and to the University of Castilla—La Mancha guidelines, no permission or consent is required to conduct the research reported herein.

Bioethics Commission of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University, through report 20/013, decided that no special authorization was necessary, given that the samples were taken post-mortem.

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Section Editor: Hiroshi Sato

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Lizana, V., Gortazar, C., Prats, R. et al. Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus in expanding wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations in Eastern Spain. Parasitol Res 120, 919–927 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06975-y

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