Paŕsitos metazoos de Anas georgica Gmelin, 1789(Aves: Anseriformes) en Chile central: especificidad, prevalenciay variaciones entre localidade

Abstract

Host specificity, prevalence and between-sites variation in metazoan parasites of 65 Anas georgica Gmelin, 1789 (Aves: Anseriformes) specimens were assessed at six localities sampled between May and July 2004 in the central-south zone of Chile. The correlation between the Statistical Taxonomic Distinctiveness index (STD) with the prevalence and intensity in each parasite taxon was assessed in those taxa with determination attained at the species level. Furthermore, the statistical significance of between-sites variation in abundance and prevalence of ectoparasites and endoparasites were assessed as well as those in total abundance and taxonomic richnes of infracommunities. Finally, statistical tests allowed assessing whether host body weight and sex were relevant sources of variation in abundance and richness. Most ducks (81.5 %) harbored parasites and from which 1,653 individuals belonging to 11 taxa were collected. They were, among ectoparasites, the Phthiraptera Anaticola crassicornis (Scopoli, 1763), Anatoecus icterodes (Nitzsch, 1818) and Trinoton querquedulae (Linneus, 1758). Among the helminths we found the Digenea Australapatemon burti (Miller, 1923) Dubois, 1968, Notocotylus imbricatus (Loss, 1893), Paramonostomum pseudoalveatum Price, 1931, and an unidentified species of Echinostoma sp. Rudolphi, 1809, Echinoparyphium Dietz, 1909; the Nematoda Porrocaecum sp. Railliet & Henry, 1912, and the Cestoda Cloacotaenia megalops (Nitzsch in Creplin, 1829) Wolfhuegel, 1938 and Fuhrmanacanthus propeteres (Fuhrmann, 1907) Spasskii, 1966. All parasites except for Digenea and A. icterodes are recorded for the first time in Chile. There was a significantly negative correlation between STD index and the prevalence while there was no significant correlation between host-specificity and intensity. There were no between-sex differences in abundance or richness, but these variables showed differences between sites. There is no information on life cycles of the collected parasites or intermediate hosts involved in their transmisssion in Chile.