Laboratory of Helminthology, Faculty of Microbiology, University of Costa Rica, San José, 11501-2060, Costa Rica.
Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales, University of Costa Rica, San José, 11501-2060, Costa Rica.
Parasit Vectors. 2024 Mar 13;17(1):127. doi: 10.1186/s13071-024-06226-4.
Wild terrestrial carnivores play a crucial role as reservoir, maintenance, and spillover hosts for a wide parasite variety. They may harbor, shed, and transmit zoonotic parasites and parasites of veterinary importance for domestic hosts. Although wild carnivores are globally distributed and comprise many different species, some living in close proximity to human settlements, only a few studies have investigated parasites of wild terrestrial carnivores using non-specific techniques. Access to samples of wild carnivores may be challenging as some species are protected, and others are secretive, possibly explaining the data paucity. Considering the importance of wild carnivores' health and ecological role, combined with the lack of specific diagnostic methodologies, this review aims to offer an overview of the diagnostic methods for parasite investigation in wild terrestrial carnivores, providing the precise techniques for collection and analysis of fecal, blood, and tissue samples, the environmental impact on said samples, and the limitations researchers currently face in analyzing samples of wild terrestrial carnivores. In addition, this paper offers some crucial information on how different environmental factors affect parasite detection postmortem and how insects can be used to estimate the time of death with a specific highlight on insect larvae. The paper contains a literature review of available procedures and emphasizes the need for diagnostic method standardization in wild terrestrial carnivores.
野生陆地食肉动物作为广泛寄生虫种类的储存宿主、维持宿主和溢出宿主,发挥着至关重要的作用。它们可能携带、脱落并传播对家畜宿主具有动物源性和兽医重要性的寄生虫。尽管野生食肉动物在全球范围内分布广泛,包括许多不同的物种,有些生活在人类住区附近,但只有少数研究使用非特异性技术调查野生陆地食肉动物的寄生虫。由于一些物种受到保护,而另一些物种则较为隐秘,获取野生食肉动物的样本可能具有挑战性,这可能解释了数据不足的现象。考虑到野生食肉动物的健康和生态作用的重要性,以及缺乏特定诊断方法的情况,本综述旨在概述用于调查野生陆地食肉动物寄生虫的诊断方法,提供收集和分析粪便、血液和组织样本的确切技术、对这些样本的环境影响以及研究人员目前在分析野生陆地食肉动物样本时面临的限制。此外,本文还提供了一些关于不同环境因素如何影响死后寄生虫检测的重要信息,以及昆虫如何用于估计特定的死亡时间,重点是昆虫幼虫。本文对现有程序进行了文献回顾,并强调了在野生陆地食肉动物中标准化诊断方法的必要性。