Abstract
This review describes the advances acquired and proven in the use of helminthophagous fungi in the control of gastrointestinal helminth parasites in domestic animals. Old and well-known premises about parasitic epidemiology and the factors that can interfere with the best performance of biological control are mentioned. Some of the most promising fungi are Duddingtonia flagrans from the predatory fungi group and Pochonia chamydosporia and Mucor circinelloides from the ovicidal fungi group. These fungi produce resistance spores called chlamidospores. Bioverm® and BioWorma®, based on the fungus D. flagrans, are available as commercial. Biotechnological products such as nanoparticles and obtaining primary and secondary metabolites have already been obtained from these fungi. Because they have different mechanisms of action, ovicidal and predatory fungi, when used together, can present a complementary and synergistic action in the biological control of helminths. Therefore, future research in the search for new formulations, the association of fungi from different groups, extraction of new molecules, and nanoparticles of these fungi in the control of helminths in various domestic animals are desired.
Highlights
This review describes the advances acquired and proven in the use of helminthophagous fungi in the control of gastrointestinal helminth parasites in domestic animals
Since 2014, several studies carried out on an experimental basis have proposed the efficacy of helminthophagous fungi from the predatorial group (Duddingtonia spp., Arthrobotrys spp. and Monacrosporium spp.) and from the ovicidal group
The fungus D. flagrans acts as the main predatory fungus of gastrointestinal parasitic nematode larvae
Summary
There are many studies from across the world demonstrating the successful implementation of helminthophagous fungi for the biological control of parasites in animal production systems It should be emphasized, a priori, that the term “helminthophagous fungi” is the best one to use due to the ability and diversified action of these organisms against nematodes and cestodes and trematodes. Mucor circinelloides) against the decrease in the rates of recurrence of helminth infections in different parts of the world [4,5,6,7,8,9,10] In these studies, successful experiments demonstrated the great versatility of helminthophagous fungi in the classic biological control of helminths. In Brazil (Bioverm® —AC001, GhenVet Saúde Animal, Paulínia, Brazil), Australia, and New Zealand (BioWorma® —NCIMB 30336, BioWorma, Sydney, Australia), these products are already used, with administration in animal feed [8,11,12,13,14]
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