In theory there should be a strong coupling between host and parasite population sizes. Here, we investigated population size and structure in 3 species of acanthocephalans, Corynosoma semerne, C. strumosum and C. magdaleni, in ringed seals (Phoca hispida) from the Bothnian Bay over a period of more than 20 years. During this period, seal numbers first decreased markedly and then increased stea...

The larval development of the nematode Contracaecum rudolphii (Rudolphi, 1819), a common parasite of the proventriculus of cormorants, was experimentally studied. Within the eggs cultivated in freshwater under laboratory temperatures of 20-22 degrees C, the developing larva undergoes two moults on days 4-5, attaining the third larval stage. Most of the ensheathed third-stage larvae, 291-457 mic...

Rodents are shared intermediate or paratenic hosts for Echinococcus multilocularis, Toxocara spp. and Toxoplasma gondii, and may serve as valuable indicators for assessing the occurrence and the level of environmental contamination and infection pressure with free-living stages of these zoonotic parasites. We investigated 658 non-commensal rodents for parasite infections in the canton of Geneva...

Rodents are important intermediate and paratenic hosts for carnivore parasites, including the important zoonotic agents Toxoplasma, Echinococcus and Toxocara. Monitoring of such parasites in rodents can be used to detect increasing risks for human and veterinary public health. Rodents were trapped at four sites in Berlin, two near the city center, two at the periphery. PCRs were conducted to de...

Until now the third-stage larvae of Serpinema trispinosum (Leidy, 1852) was only found infecting aquatic snail and planktonophagous fish as paratenic hosts (Bartlett and Anderson, 1985; Moravec et al., 1998). The life cycle of this nematode is unknown. Apparently, the freshwater turtles may become infected by ingestion of zooplankton intermediate hosts (e.g., copepods) or by feeding on parateni...

Copepods infected with Dracunculus medinensis larvae collected from infected dogs in Chad were fed to 2 species of fish and tadpoles. Although they readily ingested copepods, neither species of fish, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) nor fathead minnow (Pimephalis promelas), were found to harbor Dracunculus larvae when examined 2-3 weeks later. Tadpoles ingested copepods much more slowly; ho...

The whelk Cominella glandiformis is an important predator-scavenger of New Zealand intertidal ecosystems; a few whelks can quickly eat all the soft tissues of recently dead crabs. In this study, we demonstrate that whelks can also ingest and act as paratenic hosts for at least 4 helminth species that use crabs as intermediate hosts: metacercariae of the trematode Maritrema sp. and of another un...