Helminth Fauna of Bats of the Rostov Region: Review. 4. Acanthocephala. General Conclusions

Introduction. The thorny-headed worms (Acanthocephala) are a small group of helminths, currently classified as a phylum. Adult helminths live in the intestines of various vertebrates. Eggs are excreted into the environment with feces, and in this way infest the arthropods, who are the intermediate hosts. The life cycles of some acanthocephala species can get complicated due to inclusion of the facultative, transport, paratenic or postcyclic hosts. Сhiropterans can be the definitive, intermediate or paratenic hosts for the various groups of parasitic worms, therefore they are an important link in the epizootic chains of spreading the invasive diseases. The aim of the articles of this series is to study the species composition of helminths parasitizing in bats of the Rostov Region. In the fourth paper of this series, we present data on thorny-headed worms and sum-up the previously published information.

Materials and Methods. The research materials were the articles from the open access databases: PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), CyberLeninka (cyberleninka.ru), Google Scholar (scholar.google.com), BHL (www.biodiversitylibrary.org), JSTOR (www.jstor.org), etc. Some data were provided by the colleagues.

 Results. The list comprising three species of thorny-headed worms that can parasitize in bats in Rostov region was compiled. While analysing the literature sources, one more Nematoda species, not mentioned by us previously, was added to the list of nematodes.

Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the review revealed that 15 bat species living in the Rostov region can be parasitized by 3 or 4 Acanthocephala species of 3 genera, 2 families and 2 orders. In total, 104 helminth species of three phyla can parasitize in chiropterans in the Rostov region: Nematoda, Platyhelminthes and Acanthocephala. Whereas, the largest number of parasites falls on the class Trematoda – 42 species. The largest number of helminth species was recorded in the serotine bat (54 species) and the common noctule (50 species). The least amount (4 species) – in the soprano pipistrelle. Our data show that the helminth fauna of bats in the Rostov region, Russia and in the world as a whole is still poorly studied. At the same time, some of the parasitic worm species distinguished in our research have the veterinary and medical significance, moreover, bats participate in the epizootic chains as the facultative hosts.

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