Abstract
Hymenolepis nana and Hymenolepis diminuta are globally widespread zoonotic cestodes and rats act as main reservoir host of these cestodes. Wild brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) are the most common rats usually live in human’s dwellings, especially in areas of low socioeconomic status and low levels of hygiene practices. Since there is scarcity of information of the hymenolepiasis in rats in Bangladesh, therefore the aim of this study was to determine the incidence of H. nana and H. diminuta in wild and laboratory rats. A total of 60 rats were collected from the residential areas of rural villages of Mymensingh sadar and the Bangladesh Agricultural University campus and 10 were from the laboratory of the Department of Parasitology, BAU, Mymensingh. The rats were killed by cardiac puncture and tapeworms were collected and subsequently were subjected for morphological study under the stereomicroscope. Two species of cestodes, namely H. nana and H. diminuta were detected showing the overall prevalence of 23.3 % and 35 % respectively. The high prevalence of H. nana (30%) was determined in rats captured from the rural village areas whereas H. diminuta was found more prevalent (60%) in the laboratory rats. The result of the current study suggests that H. nana infection in rural village areas may act as a risk factor for the zoonotic transmission of hymenolepiasis to human in Bangladesh.
 Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.7(2): 255-259, August 2020
Highlights
Hymenolepiasis, is a potentially zoonotic a disease caused by the cestode Hymenolepis nana and H. diminuta (Sreedevi et al, 2015)
The present study showed relatively higher prevalence of H. diminuta (35%) followed by H. nana (23.3%) which was in according with Guddissa et al (2011) where the author reported the high prevalence of H. diminuta (26.79 %) followed by H. nana (7.1 %) in rats at Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), Addis Ababa
The high prevalence (60%) of H. diminuta was found in laboratory rats followed by low prevalence (25%) in rats caught from the Bangladesh Agricultural University residential areas (Table 1) which is in accordance with Goswami et al (2011) where it has been reported the high prevalence of H. diminuta infection (24 %) in albino laboratory wistar rats
Summary
Hymenolepiasis, is a potentially zoonotic a disease caused by the cestode Hymenolepis nana (dwarf tapeworm) and H. diminuta (Sreedevi et al, 2015). Infection of H. nana and H. diminuta can cause severe diseases, even life threatening conditions in immunosuppressed individuals with HIV (Olson et al, 2003) Both cestodes can be differentiated by the morphology of their scolices. Synanthropic rodents (Rattus norvegicus, Berkenhout, 1769) are known reservoirs for these cestodes, as well as many others organisms like bacteria, viruses which have zoonotic importance (Simões et al, 2016) These rodents are capable in adapting to a variety of environments which makes them extremely abundant. The processes of urbanization and the unplanned growth of cities provide an excellent habitat for rats They have attracted much attention for research because of their role as a reservoir of human and livestock diseases, zoonotic pathogens (Ito and Itagaki, 2003; Paramasvaran et al, 2009). Rats are commonly used for experimental studies and their endoparasites frequently causing zoonotic problem, the present study was aimed to determine the incidence of hymenolepiosis in naturally infected adult wild and laboratory rats in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh
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