Advances in Environment, Ecosystems and Sustainable Tourism
Ecological aspects of ectoparasites’ infestation in the yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis: Rodentia, Muridae) from Transylvania (Romania) ANA MARIA BENEDEK1, IOAN SÎRBU1, ANAMARIA LAZĂR2, DANIEL GHEOCA1 1 Department of Environmental Sciences and Physics Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu Dr. Ion RaŃiu St. 5-7, RO - 550012, Sibiu 2 Department of Engineering and Management of Food and Tourism Transilvania University of Brașov Eroilor Bd. 29, RO - 500362, Braşov ROMANIA
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[email protected] Abstract: - Apodemus flavicollis is the most widely spread and abundant rodent in the woodlands of Romania. It inhabits all types of forests as well as open areas in their vicinity. Data on ectoparasites hosted by A. flavicollis were collected from 339 animals captured in 10 areas across Transylvania, beginning with the year 2004. Prevalence of ectoparasites was 78.2%. Four groups of ectoparasites were found, namely Acarina (including Ixodoidea), Siphonaptera, Anoplura, and Coleoptera. Among parasite taxa, mites (Gamasidae and Trombiculidae) were most common, followed by fleas, ticks, lice, and beetles. The effect of some biotic and abiotic variables (locality, altitude, season, year, host age and sex) was tested using Pearson chi-square test of independence. Geographic position (altitude and site) did not affect significantly prevalence of the ectoparasites when all taxa were pooled together. Time (season and year) on the other hand, has a significant effect, with a decrease in prevalence from spring to winter. Key-Words: - mites, ticks, fleas, lice, ectoparasite prevalence, seasonal variations concerning mites [26], fleas [27], and lice [31]. About the parasites of rodents from Transylvania little is known, the main paper containing data also from this region being the catalogue of fleas from Romania, drawn up by Suciu [28]. 16 species of fleas are mentioned as being collected from specimens of A. flavicollis. Other old papers contain only scattered faunistical data from Transylvania. Negoescu [20] presents some data on Gamasida from various areas in Romania, including Retezat Mountains, while Suciu and Popescu [29] make a synthesis on the external parasites and commensals of the bank vole - Clethrionomys (Myodes) glareolus (Schreber, 1780) in the southern part of the Carpathian Mountains. The original data on the distribution of Apodemus flavicollis in Transylvania are synthesized in [6].
1 Introduction Apodemus flavicollis (Melchior, 1834) is the most widely spread and abundant rodent in the woodlands of Romania. It inhabits all types of forested areas from lowland to mountains, not only compact woodlands, but also forest edges, forest belts, shrubs (including the subalpine shrubs of Pinus mugo Turra, 1764), river coppices, hedgerows, and orchards. It is also found in open habitats (meadows or cultivated fields) in the vicinity of forests, or in the rocky areas from the subalpine vegetation level. In Transylvania it has a large distribution being mentioned from most areas, beginning with 1912 (by Miller) [15]. However, due to its morphological resemblance to the sibling species, the wood mouse - Apodemus sylvaticus (Linnaeus, 1758), it is most likely that some of the recordings of the latter are actually mis-identifications. This explains why A. flavicollis was not listed by Bielz in the 19th century among the rodents from Transylvania [7], [8]. Most studies of parasites on rodents in Romania were carried out in open areas from lowlands (mainly in Dobrogea and the Danube Delta),
ISBN: 978-1-61804-195-1
2 Material and Methods Data on the infestation with ectoparasites were collected from specimens trapped between 2004 and 2010, in various types of habitats (woodland,
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Advances in Environment, Ecosystems and Sustainable Tourism
riverbanks, meadows, wetlands) in 10 areas from Transylvania from both lowland and mountain regions (Fig. 1), located between 50 and 2000 m a.s.l. Mice were captured by live trapping, using 50 Polish traps set either in line or in net, depending on the habitat. The captured specimens were weighted, sex and age category were determined, and ectoparasites were collected or noted. The parasites are considered according to their taxonomic framing, five groups being distinguished: Acarina (mites), Ixodidae (ticks) – although part of Acarina, are considered as a separate group due to their importance as vectors for various diseases and also to the lack of data from Romania, Siphonaptera (fleas), Anoplura (lice), and Coleoptera (beetles). Prevalence of parasite infestation was calculated by means of the ratio between number of specimens hosting parasites and the total number of examined specimens from that category. The influence of different variables on the prevalence of the ectoparasite taxa was tested using Pearson chi-square test of independence, corrected in case of small samples by means of Fisher exact test. Significant differences were considered for p
