Abstract
BackgroundThe red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is host to a community of zoonotic and other helminth species. Tracking their community structure and dynamics over decades is one way to monitor the long term risk of parasitic infectious diseases relevant to public and veterinary health.MethodsWe identified 17 helminth species from 136 foxes by mucosal scraping, centrifugal sedimentation/flotation and the washing and sieving technique. We applied rarefaction analysis to our samples and compared the resulting curve to the helminth community reported in literature 35 years ago.ResultsFox helminth species significantly increased in number in the last 35 years (p-value <0.025). Toxascaris leonina, Mesocestoides litteratus, Trichuris vulpis and Angiostrongylus vasorum are four new veterinary-relevant species. The zoonotic fox tapeworm (E. multilocularis) was found outside the previously described endemic regions in the Netherlands.ConclusionsHelminth fauna in Dutch red foxes increased in biodiversity over the last three decades.
Highlights
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is host to a community of zoonotic and other helminth species
E. multilocularis tends to increase in the fox population over the last decades in Europe [21] and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommends monitoring this parasite in foxes, especially at the borders of its distribution area in Europe [22]
Helminth species number To evaluate a possible change in helminth species richness, we applied rarefaction analysis [25,26] to the number of distinct helminth species that we identified in 136 foxes
Summary
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is host to a community of zoonotic and other helminth species. Tracking their community structure and dynamics over decades is one way to monitor the long term risk of parasitic infectious diseases relevant to public and veterinary health. This study has been the sole large scale surveillance of helminth fauna in red foxes in the Netherlands. A series of additional large scale surveillance in red foxes became reality since the initial detection of Echinococcus multilocularis in the Netherlands in 1996 [20]. Since the Netherlands are a densely populated country with an average human population density of 497/km2 [23] and a pet population of around 1.5 million dogs [24], a high density of red foxes (0.5 to 4.0 per square kilometre) might potentially lead to exposure of humans and dogs to zoonotic parasites, like E. multilocularis [16]
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