Spirocercosis is a parasitic disease caused by the nematode
Spirocerca lupi
that affects several canids around the world. In Costa Rica, few spirocercosis cases have been reported; however, it is ...suspected that the infection is currently underdiagnosed. As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has sped up the spread of scientific knowledge, raising practioner’s awareness of the epidemiology and signs and manifestations of infections. The aim of this work was to use social media as a tool for increasing awareness of spirocercosis among veterinarians and investigate the frequency of cases occurring in Costa Rica. Infographic material about the infection was disseminated by Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram from January 2021 to July 2022 using a public account of the Laboratory of Helminthology of the University of Costa Rica. In addition, Google Forms questionnaires were completed by veterinarians to report the number of spirocercosis cases in their clinics, associated manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of the disease. Remarkably, since 2020, a six-fold increase in the number of cases per year was noted. Clinical manifestations matched those reported elsewhere, and one of every three dogs infected with
S
.
lupi
died spontaneously or required euthanasia because of the infection. This work suggests that
S
.
lupi
infection in Costa Rica may have been underdiagnosed in the last decade, and the knowledge and awareness of clinical personnel play a major role in the detection of this and other infectious diseases.
Abdominal angiostrongyliasis (AA) is a severe parasitic infection caused by the nematode Angiostrongylus costaricensis. This disease is characterized by abdominal pain, a strong inflammatory ...eosinophilic response in the blood and tissues, and eventually intestinal perforation. Diagnosis of AA is challenging since there are no commercially available serological kits for A. costaricensis, and thus, histopathological analysis remains the gold standard. Herein we provide a decision flowchart for clinicians to improve the diagnosis of AA based on a patient's clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, macroscopic observations of the gut lesions, as well as characteristic microscopic alterations in biopsies. A brief discussion of the available polymerase chain reaction and in-house serological methods is also presented. The aim of this mini-review is to improve the diagnosis of AA, which should lead to prompt detection of cases and better estimates of the epidemiology and geographical distribution of A. costaricensis.
Many new marine parasite species are added every year. Still, in some places, mainly tropical regions, marine parasites have been little studied. An exhaustive review of the indexed publications ...where species of parasites are reported in the marine environments of Costa Rica was carried out. The history of research on marine parasites in this region is also reviewed. A total of 146 species of marine parasites have been reported in Costa Rica as parasites of 61 different species of hosts. Most of these parasites correspond to trematodes and cestodes, found mainly in the digestive tract of their vertebrate hosts. In Costa Rica, marine parasites have been studied mainly in sea turtles, elasmobranchs, fish, and dolphins. Most marine parasites have been reported based on morphological identifications of adult stages, and most of the work done so far consists of taxonomic identifications (species reports), with little contribution to the pathology and other aspects of the parasites–hosts interactions. The technical difficulties for research in marine parasitology, the lack of sampling in certain groups of hosts, and the lack of a consolidated research group in marine wildlife parasitology in Costa Rica are factors that have prevented a greater and faster advance in the knowledge of the biodiversity of marine parasites in this country.
Prosthenorchis elegans is a worm of the family Archiacanthocephala that infects non-human primates in the Americas, producing an intestinal pathology that may compromise the life of its hosts. ...Squirrel monkeys, Saimiri oerstedii citrinellus, were found with P. elegans in Costa Rica. Histopathological analysis revealed a severe pyogranulomatous response composed by macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils, fibroblasts and lymphocytes. Morphological worm analyses revealed 36 hooks in the proboscis distributed in six rows; and total body, hook and lemnisci length were compatible to the original descriptions of P. elegans. In addition, phylogenetic, haplotype network and genetic distance analyses were done on cytochrome oxidase subunit 1, cox1, sequences obtained from the collected specimens. Sequences obtained herein clustered separately with high posterior probabilities in a Bayesian Inference tree and showed 8.12% nucleotide differences when compared to P. elegans from Colombia. This high divergence was confirmed in the TCS network that separated Colombian and Costa Rican sequences by 32 mutational steps, a genetic distance PCA which separated sequences from both geographical locations by 89.5% and an F
value of 0.655, indicating the presence of cryptic diversity in P. elegans. Additional studies from specimens collected from other definitive hosts and geographical locations are required to better understand the biodiversity of this species.
Rhodoliths are round calcareous red algae that form extensive beds and associated with them are a diverse suite of species. Rhodolith beds are among the least known coastal–marine ecosystems, and ...even less is understood about their associated flora and fauna. Here, we present an evaluation of the biodiversity larger than 500 μm associated with rhodoliths at Isla del Coco National Park, Costa Rica, an oceanic island in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, 500 km offshore of the mainland. This research determined the influence of rhodolith degree of aggregation (distance among individual rhodolith) as well as rhodolith complexity, volume, and mass in relation to the diversity, composition, and biomass of the associated fauna. A total of 145 taxa were collected in 60 rhodolith samples. Arthropods, polychaetes, and mollusks were the dominant taxa in terms of richness, and crustaceans + acari represented >50% of the total abundance. Five potentially new species were collected in this study. Collections identified 31 new records, with 20 of them being newly reported genera for Isla del Coco. Many of the organisms found were juveniles as well as adult stages bearing eggs, demonstrating the importance of this ecosystem. The faunal composition changed along the gradient of rhodolith aggregation. Moderately aggregated rhodoliths (separated by 5 to 10 cm) had the highest diversity, with the highest averages of taxon richness and total numerical abundance and the highest faunal biomass. There were more organisms in more complex rhodoliths; nevertheless, the complexity of the rhodolith did not affect the number of taxa or total organism biomass. Larger rhodoliths, in size and mass, favored higher amounts of taxa and organisms. The rhodolith bed studied is an example of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis because the highest value of biodiversity of invertebrates was at the moderate aggregation level of rhodoliths. In this density of rhodoliths, the fauna was less exposed to hard environmental conditions and prevented dominant species.
Angiostrongylus costaricensis is a zoonotic parasitic nematode described for the first time in 1971 by Pedro Morera and Rodolfo Céspedes in Costa Rica. This parasite causes an infection known as ...abdominal angiostrongyliasis, affecting mainly school-aged children and young adults. Infection with A. costaricensis has been associated with a myriad of rodent and mollusk species in the Americas and the Caribbean, as its natural hosts and reservoirs. In this commemorative review, we highlight the extensive research collected through a 50-year journey, which includes ecological, pathological, and molecular studies on A. costaricensis and its implicated disease. We also identify major knowledge gaps in its evolutionary history, the ecological role of imported and invasive mollusk species, and immune response. We propose that the advent of -omics analyses will allow us to gather novel information regarding A. costaricensis biology and infection dynamics, as well as to promote the design of much-needed sensitive and specific diagnostic tools.
Parasite cryptic species are morphologically indistinguishable but genetically distinct organisms, leading to taxa with unclear species boundaries. Speciation mechanisms such as cospeciation, host ...colonization, taxon pulse, and oscillation may lead to the emergence of cryptic species, influencing host-parasite interactions, parasite ecology, distribution, and biodiversity. The study of cryptic species diversity in helminth parasites of human and veterinary importance has gained relevance, since their distribution may affect clinical and epidemiological features such as pathogenicity, virulence, drug resistance and susceptibility, mortality, and morbidity, ultimately affecting patient management, course, and outcome of treatment. At the same time, the need for recognition of cryptic species diversity has implied a transition from morphological to molecular diagnostic methods, which are becoming more available and accessible in parasitology. Here, we discuss the general approaches for cryptic species delineation and summarize some examples found in nematodes, trematodes and cestodes of medical and veterinary importance, along with the clinical implications of their taxonomic status. Lastly, we highlight the need for the correct interpretation of molecular information, and the correct use of definitions when reporting or describing new cryptic species in parasitology, since molecular and morphological data should be integrated whenever possible.
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•Cryptic diversity has been described in helminths of human and animal importance.•Cryptic species are morphologically indistinguishable but genetically distinct organisms.•These entities emerge by different evolutionary and speciation mechanisms.•Analysis of molecular and morphological data is needed for cryptic species delimitation.•Cryptic diversity may affect pathogenicity, virulence and drug resistance of helminths.
•Angiostrongylus vasorum was found for the first time in grey foxes.•Cox1 and ITS2 analyses separated A. vasorum from Costa Rica to other locations.•High nucleotide substitution rates in A. vasorum ...may explain high genetic diversity•Cophylogenetic analysis revealed cospeciation as the main coevolutionary event.•Our data suggests cryptic diversity or a new circulating Angiostrongylus spp.
Angiostrongylus vasorum is a parasitic metastrongylid infecting wild canids and domestic dogs. Its patchy distribution, high pathogenicity and taxonomical classification makes the evolutionary history of A. vasorum intriguing and important to study. First larval stages of A. vasorum were recovered from feces of two grey foxes, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, from Costa Rica. Sequencing and phylogenetic and haplotypic analysis of the ITS2, 18S and cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) fragments was performed. Then p- and Nei´s genetic distance, nucleotide substitution rates and species delimitation analyses were conducted with cox1 data of the specimens collected herein and other Angiostrongylus spp. Cophylogenetic congruence and coevolutionary events of Angiostrongylus spp. and their hosts were evaluated using patristic and phenetic distances and maximum parsimony reconciliations. Specimens from Costa Rica clustered in a separate branch from European and Brazilian A. vasorum sequences in the phylogenetic and haplotype network analysis using the ITS2 and cox1 data. In addition, cox1 p-distance of the sequences derived from Costa Rica were up to 8.6% different to the ones from Europe and Brazil, a finding mirrored in Nei´s genetic distance PCoA. Species delimitation analysis supported a separate group with the sequences from Costa Rica, suggesting that these worms may represent cryptic variants of A. vasorum, a new undescribed taxon or Angiocaulus raillieti, a synonym species of A. vasorum described in Brazil. Moreover, nucleotide substitution rates in A. vasorum were up to six times higher than in the congener Angiostrongylus cantonensis. This finding and the long time elapsed since the last common ancestor between both species may explain the larger diversity in A. vasorum. Finally, cophylogenetic congruence was observed between Angiostrongylus spp. and their hosts, with cospeciation events occurring at deeper taxonomic branching of host order. Altogether, our data suggest that the diversity of the genus Angiostrongylus is larger than expected, since additional species may be circulating in wild canids from the Americas.
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A new species of trematode of anaporrhutine gorgoderid, from the gill chambers of the Munda round ray
in Costa Rica is described, based on an integrative taxonomic approach that includes the use of ...light and scanning electron microscopy, ITS2 and 28S rDNA sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis.
sp. nov. can be distinguished from congeneric species by a combination of morphological traits and particularly by having the genital pore opening at the level of the intestinal bifurcation. The new species also can be distinguished from all other species of
, except
Curran, Blend & Overstreet, 2003, by having fewer testicular follicles per testis.
sp. nov. also differs from
in its forebody shape and by having different morphology and location of the vitellaria. The study of the tegumental surface of
sp. nov., as revealed by scanning electron microscopy, allowed detection of new morphological characters for a member of Anaporrhutinae that may be of taxonomic value. These are: a stylet cavity dorsal to the oral sucker with a large penetration gland opening on each side of the cavity and small penetration gland openings located ventral to the stylet cavity, arranged in a circle around the mouth. This represents the first record of an
species from Costa Rica. Further,
sp. nov. represents the first parasite described or reported in this host.
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