Nearctic Shrews, Sorex spp., as Paratenic Hosts of Soboliphyme baturini (Nematoda: Soboliphymidae)

Authors

S. V. Karpenko, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
N. E. Dokuchaev, North Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Eric P. Hoberg, National Parasite Collection, Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, United States Department of AgricultureFollow

Date of this Version

2007

Comments

Published in Comparative Parasitology (2007) 74(1): 81-87.

Abstract

Third-stage larvae (L3) of Soboliphyme baturini were discovered for the first time in shrews, Sorex cinereus and Sorex tundrensis from Alaska and the Nearctic. Shrews were found to be infected with L3 at Suloia Lake, southeastern Alaska, Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, southwestern Alaska, and at the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve near the Yukon-Alaska border. Larvae in shrews from Alaska were morphologically indistinguishable from those known in both insectivores and arvicoline rodents from Russia. The occurrence of S. baturini in Alaskan insectivores further establishes shrews as important hosts in the transmission of S. baturini among mustelids and other carnivores and indicates for the first time the basis for a paratenic cycle in the Nearctic.