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SHORT NOTES

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2026): Rev. Arg. Parasitol.

New records of Contracaecum rudolphii Hartwich, 1964 (Nematoda: Anisakidae) and Echinostomatidae gen. sp. cf. Neomoliniella (Trematoda) in piscivorous birds from southeastern Mexico

Submitted
March 25, 2026
Published
2026-04-29

Abstract

The objective of this study was to report new helminthological records in two piscivorous birds in southeastern Mexico. The viscera of one specimen of Nannopterum auritum and one of Aramus guarauna were examined and the helminths found were studied with optical microscopy techniques and analyses of genetic markers (28S, COI and ITS). In N. auritum the nematodes were identified as C. rudolphii. In A. guarauna only one trematode of the family Echinostomatidae was found, which exhibited most morphological characteristics of the genus Neomoliniella. However, due to the existence of some metric differences with respect to this latter and the fact that only one specimen was studied, it is recorded as Echinostomatidae gen. sp. cf. Neomoliniella. The sequences of C. rudolphii had high identity percentages (28S = 99.9%; COI = 98.7-99%) with sequences from the same species deposited in GenBank. The phylogenetic analysis on ITS sequences of species of the genus Contracaecum grouped the sequence isolated from Mexico with the sister species C. rudolphii “C”. The sequence obtained from the trematode had high identity percentages with sequences of species of the family Echinostomatidae, such as Patagifer bilobus (98.3%), Echinostoma sarcinum (98.1%), and Neomoliniella longicorpa (97.9%). In the phylogenetic tree of the family Echinostomatidae, the trematode isolated from A. guarauna was grouped with two sequences of N. longicorpa, although with low support. These results increase the number of helminths documented in N. auritum in Mexico from five to six and present the first helminthological record for A. guarauna in this country.

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