Helminths parasites of heteromyds rodents from semiarid regions of México

Abstract

As part of an ongoing project to inventory parasitic helminths of heteromyid rodents in México, various semiarid localities in the country have been sampled since 2002, collecting specimens from the genera Chaetodipus, Dipodomys, Heteromys and Perognathus, obtaining a total of 19 helminth species (3 platyhelminthes and 16 nematodes).  For the present study, rodent and parasite sampling was carried out during the years 2007, 2008, 2015 and 2017, collecting 60 specimens of the family Heteromyidae (Chaetodipus sp., Dipodomys sp., D. merriami, D. ornatus, Heteromys irroratus and Perognathus flavus) from different semi-arid regions located in the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, México, Puebla and San Luis Potosí.  Derived from the dissection of the collected rodents, a total of 11 taxa of helminths were found: 2 cestode species (Hymenolepis morphotype 1 and morphotype 2) and 9 nematode taxa (Capillaria cf. americana, Heteromyoxyuris otomii, Physaloptera sp., Protospirura dipodomis, Pterygodermatites dipodomis, Syphacia sp., Trichuris sp., T. elatoris and Vexillata sp.).  The presence of parasites with a direct life cycle (e.g., Hymenolepis sp. and Pt. dipodomis) indicates that an insect species is part of the rodents diet.  Seven of the 11 helminths found in this work coincide with those recorded in previous studies.  Our results indicates that the biota of the semi-desert areas of México has elements of Nearctic affinity related it to southern United States of America.