title: Influence of urbanization on the epidemiology of intestinal helminths of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Geneva, Switzerland.
abstract: Dixenous helminths that depend on rodent intermediate hosts are supposed to be negatively affected by urbanization due to lower supply of rodents in urbanized environments. Prevalence rates of dixenous, non-strictly monoxenous, and monoxenous helminths in 228 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) along a gradient of increasing urbanization were assessed by morphological parasite identification in the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Multivariate analyses for the five most prevalent helminth species or genera revealed a significant decrease of prevalence rates for the dixenous helminths Echinococcus multilocularis and Taenia spp. from the rural (52.1 and 54.3%, respectively) to the urban area (30.0 and 20.0%, respectively), but not for the monoxenous nematode Uncinaria stenocephala (overall prevalence of 78.2%) and the non-strictly monoxenous nematode Toxocara canis (overall prevalence of 44.3%). The lower prevalence of Toxascaris leonina in the urban area (8.0%) compared to the rural area (59.6%) raises the question of whether rodent paratenic hosts play a major role for the population dynamics of this species.
authors: Institute of Parasitology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 266a, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Leslie A
authors: LA
authors: Reperant
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Hegglin
authors: Claude
authors: C
authors: Fischer
authors: Lucia
authors: L
authors: Kohler
authors: Jean-Marc
authors: JM
authors: Weber
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Deplazes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000469:parasitology; D005260:Female; D005589:Foxes / Q000469:parasitology*; D006374:Helminthiasis, Animal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D006376:Helminths / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007411:Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012621:Seasons; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014507:Urbanization