species in wildlife.

Transmission of spp. in life cycles that involve mainly wildlife is well recognized for those species with small mammals as intermediate hosts (e. g. ), as well as for and the 'northern' genotypes of (G8 and G10). In contrast, the remaining taxa of sensu lato are best known for their domestic life cycles, and the numerous wild mammal species (mainly ungulates) that have been recorded with cystic echinococcosis in the past were mainly considered a result of spill-over from the dog-livestock transmission system. This view was challenged with the advent of molecular characterization, allowing discrimination of the metacestodes, although the contribution of wild mammals to various life cycles has remained uncertain for scarcity of wildlife studies. Numerous records of cysts in wild ungulates date back to the 20th century, but cannot with certainty be allocated to the species and genotypes that are recognized today. This means that our current knowledge is largely restricted to studies of the past two decades that kept adding gradually to our concepts of transmission in various geographic regions. In particular, new insights were gathered in the past years on s.l. in wildlife of sub-Saharan Africa, but also on transmission patterns of in previously neglected regions, e. g. North America. Here, an update is provided on the current state of knowledge on wild mammals as hosts for all species, listing >150 species of wild hosts with references, as well as estimates on their epidemiological impact and our current gaps of knowledge.