title: A novel myxozoan parasite of terrestrial mammals: description of Soricimyxum minuti sp. n. (Myxosporea) in pygmy shrew Sorex minutus from Hungary.
abstract: As part of a biodiversity study in northwestern Hungary, we conducted a parasitological survey of small mammals. In both common shrews (Sorex araneus Linnaeus) and pygmy shrews (Sorex minutus Linnaeus), we found myxospores of a species of Soricimyxum Prunescu, Prunescu, Pucek et Lom, 2007 (Myxosporea) and plasmodia in the bile ducts within the liver. Spores from both species of shrewswere morphologically and morphometrically indistinguishable, but differed in their SSU rRNA gene sequences by 3.3%. We identified spores and developmental stages from the common shrew as Soricimyxum fegati Prunescu, Prunescu, Pucek et Lom, 2007, based on morphometric data and DNA sequence similarity. Spores from the pygmy shrew were only 96.7% similar to S. fegati, hence we identified them as a novel myxosporean Soricimyxum minuti sp. n. This is only the second myxosporean parasite species described from mammals.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Veterinary Medical Research, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary;
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Szekely
authors.affiliation: Institute for Veterinary Medical Research, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary;
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cech
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA;
authors.forename: Stephen D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.affiliation: Institute for Veterinary Medical Research, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary;
authors.forename: Kalman
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Molnar
authors.affiliation: Institute for Veterinary Medical Research, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest, Hungary;
authors.forename: Laszlo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Egyed
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Andras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gubanyi
keywords: Hungary; Myxozoa; Sorex spp.; Soricimyxum spp.; bile ducts; liver; mammalian hosts