Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, 80101, Joensuu, Finland.
Parasitol Res. 2012 Sep;111(3):1223-32. doi: 10.1007/s00436-012-2956-0. Epub 2012 May 29.
The deer ked (Lipoptena cervi, Diptera, Hippoboscidae) is a haematophagous parasitic fly of the moose (Alces alces) and other cervids, and it is very common in southern and central parts of Finland. The aim of this study was to determine how the intensive parasitism caused by the deer ked affects the health and welfare of the moose. Moose blood samples (n = 78) were collected from deer ked-infested and ked-free regions at 62-68° N and analysed for haematology and clinical chemistry. In addition, tissue samples of moose (n = 23) were collected from a deer ked-infested region at 62° N to determine how the parasite load correlates to several physiological variables of the host. The differences in the blood and plasma values between the deer ked-free and ked-infested animals were minor. In the infested regions, the moose had higher mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentrations unlikely to have been caused by the parasitism. The intensities of deer keds had no consistent correlations with the values of plasma clinical chemistry, endocrinology, amino acids, tissue enzyme activities or body energy stores. However, the hepatic percentages of several individual n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and the n-3 PUFA sum correlated inversely with the intensity and density of deer keds. Although a wide array of physiological variables was determined, only minor effects caused by the heavy deer ked parasitism could be detected, suggesting that the moose might tolerate this parasite relatively well.
鹿虻（Lipoptena cervi，双翅目，虻科）是一种吸血寄生蝇，寄生在驼鹿（Alces alces）和其他鹿科动物身上，在芬兰南部和中部非常常见。本研究的目的是确定鹿虻的密集寄生对驼鹿的健康和福利有何影响。在 62-68°N 的鹿虻出没地区和无鹿虻地区采集了 78 份驼鹿血液样本，进行血液学和临床化学分析。此外，还从 62°N 的鹿虻出没地区采集了 23 份驼鹿组织样本，以确定寄生虫负荷与宿主的几个生理变量如何相关。无鹿虻和有鹿虻动物的血液和血浆值差异较小。在有鹿虻的地区，驼鹿的平均红细胞血红蛋白浓度较高，这不太可能是由寄生虫引起的。鹿虻的强度与血浆临床化学、内分泌学、氨基酸、组织酶活性或身体能量储存值之间没有一致的相关性。然而，几种个体 n-3 多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）和 n-3 PUFA 总和的肝百分比与鹿虻的强度和密度呈负相关。尽管确定了广泛的生理变量，但只能检测到由大量鹿虻寄生引起的轻微影响，这表明驼鹿可能相对耐受这种寄生虫。
