Diversity and ecology of nematodes in wild terrestial mammals: two decades of research in Argentina.

NAVONE G T; NOTARNICOLA J; ROBLES M. R.

Mendoza

Congreso; X Internacional Mammalogical Congress; 2009

Biodiversity Research Group- SAREM

The presence of a parasite species in a particular host species is a process that may take several generations. Throughout the phylogenetic history of a group of host species, parasite species will be acquired or lost over time. Moreover, several ecological processes can influence the probabilities of parasite extinction, colonization, and even speciation within a given host population (parasite component community) or host species (parasite fauna). The nematodes are the endoparasite more ubiquitous that infecting all orders of mammals. During the 70th and the 80th, several host-nematode parasites associations were reported from wild mammals in Argentina. These studies described new species and most of them, new hosts and geographical records for Cavidae (Rodents), Dasypodidae (Xenarthra), and Didephidae (Marsupialia) with complete descriptions of their nematodes. Latter, the researches were focused on Cricetidae rodents since their populations are large, inhabiting vast territories, and representing an important element of the biodiversity in Argentina. In North and Central Argentina, cricetid rodents comprise more than 70 species. Before the 90th, in this area only 8 species of nematodes were known. Our contributions, from the 90th to the present, enlarge the list of nematodes to 35 species, the 77% of the parasite fauna known. Nematodes belong to 6 of 7 orders reported on small mammals as follows: Trichuridae (3), Capillariidae (5), Oxyuridae (2), Metastrongylidae (1), Nippostrongylinae (11), and Onchocercidae (5). Ours investigations considerably enlarge the knowledge of the nematode-host associations. The diversity of the host species examined and the complexity of the studied areas allowed to explain the variability observed on their parasite assemblage. More epidemiological studies carried out by our group of work will provide a new perspective on the diversity of parasite communities allowing predicting the conditions of a parasite species to persist in the host populations.