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Small- and medium-sized mammals play an important role in the life cycle of tick-borne pathogens in urban habitats. Our aim was to apply the general protocol, DAMA (documentation-assessment-monitoring-action), which is an integrated proposal to build a proactive capacity to understand, anticipate, and respond to the outcomes of accelerating environmental change. Here we tested whether road-killed carcasses in urban areas are useful sources of tissue and parasite samples to investigate these species' contribution to the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases. We collected 29 road-killed and 6 carcasses with different causes of mortality (23 northern white-breasted hedgehogs and 12 from seven other mammal species) mainly from Budapest, Hungary. We used quantitative and conventional PCRs to determine pathogens in 90 collected tissues (52 from hedgehogs; 38 from other species) and 417 ticks that were only found on hedgehogs. Tissue samples revealed a wide range of bacteria including human zoonotic pathogens identified as Anaplasma phagocytophilum ecotype I, Borrelia afzelii, B. spielmanii, Borrelia miyamotoi, Rickettsia helvetica, and Bartonella species. Among the 23 collected hedgehog carcasses, 17 (74%) were infected with A. phagocytophilum, 6 (26%) with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., 12 (52%) with R. helvetica, and 15 (65%) with Rickettsia sp. Furthermore, we report the first detection of Rickettsia sp. infection in European moles and lesser weasel and R. helvetica in stone marten. Through sequencing B. afzelii, R. helvetica, R. monacensis and A. phagocytophilum ecotype I were identified in the ticks removed from the carcasses. We showed that road-killed urban mammal species are exposed to multiple tick-borne pathogens but further studies have to clarify whether they, in fact, also have a role in their maintenance and spread. Our study also demonstrates that roadkill can be used in the risk assessment of potential human infection and in the implementation of the DAMA protocol.

SUMMARY Background: During intensive livestock farming prevention of protozoa infection is becoming increasingly difficult due to the limited use of chemotherapeutic agents and the lack of available vaccines. Coccidiosis is prevalent worldwide and is one of the most common diseases in the intensive poultry industry in Hungary. Coccidiosis can cause high mortality however the subclinical form of the disease, which results in a lack of weight gain and a need for increased feed consumption, has become a much greater threat to local economies. The intensive broiler chicken and turkey industry is affected severely from this disease that subsequently causes huge economic loss to farmers. Objectives: Based on current literature the authors summarise the history and aetiology of subclinical coccidiosis and the lifecycle of the Eimeria-spp. They describe the epidemiology, clinical signs and assess the different techniques used to diagnose the disease including those utilised in the field (such as total mean lesion scoring) and laboratory techniques (faeces examination, oocyst counting technique, flotation, polymerase chain reaction). They explain the aspects of ther-apy and prevention options, such as vaccination (live vaccines, attenuated vaccines, subunit vaccines) and the resistance against different anticoccidial drugs. They discuss the possibility of using various alternative natural extracts (such as antioxidants, pre- and probiotics, sugar-beet extracts etc.).

SUMMARY Larvae of protostrongylid nematodes develop in the muscles of terrestrial snails and the adults live in the lung of mammals. The behaviour of protostrogylid and angiostrongylid larvae is interesting because they can infect such animals (and even humans) that does not consume living snails intentionally. In these cases the route of infection itself is not always clear. There had been many contradic-tory views for decades on whether these larvae infect mammals while they are in the tissues of snail or after getting out from the snail. The parasitosis caused by such worm species is a slowly developing, difficult or untreatable process, and it is therefore advisable to prevent the infection itself. The authors aim is to find out whether snails are consumed randomly by the strictly obligate herbivores, and how lungworm larvae get into such definitive host species.The authors investigated the connections between the Protostrongylus lung-worms of rabbits and hares and one of their common intermediate hosts, the Xerolentaobvia snail. They have found that the worm larvae cannot climb out of their own power from the snails’ body, but the snails themselves are not pre-ferred to eat by the lagomorphs, at least these snails do not belong to their usual diet. In the field there were not found lungworm larvae in snails smaller than the size of the Xerolenta snails, which ones can be accidentally consumed by the rabbits while snails crawl on plants. On the surface of the haulm of grasses the authors found larvae released from snails in only one case. The larvae released from the snails’ body artificially are only viable for hours at most. The authors assume that peculiar environmental conditions and the active involvement of the living snail are necessary for the release of the larvae and getting in the final host. The conditions which facilitate the way of infections are so far unknown but it was supposed that the night is the preferable time of the day for the transmission of larvae from the snails to the final hosts because the snails move more at night than during the day and the rabbits also like to graze at night.

Data of samples used in this study and relevant molecular data. The flea species are ordered vertically according to their taxonomic relationships (i.e. representing Pulicidae, Vermipsyllidae, Leptopsyllidae and Ceratophyllidae). (DOCX 25 kb)

SUMMARY In the first part of this article the authors described some ways to detect microfilariae of filarioid worms of dog. The second part of the article deals with the identification of microfilariae. By morphological examination of Giemsa-stained microfilariae we can clearly distinguish the Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens species in most cases. Direct examination of the larvae is particularly useful when there is a mixed infection, in which case the serological and molecular tests do not give necessarily appreciable results. D. immitis larvae are much smaller than the microfilariae of the other species and their tapered head and the distribution of cells in their body makes them distinguishable from D. repens larvae. It is useful if one can compare the freshly found microfilariae to previously defined reference specimens stored on microscopic slide. In addition, the authors suggest a simple serial dilution method of haemolysed blood to estimate the amount of larvae that does not require any special devices.

SUMMARY The authors suggest easy methods for veterinarians with small animal practice to detect the presence of microfilariae produced by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens nematodes and to recognize their embryonic larvae (prelarvae). The presented simple light microscopy techniques help to reveal as many subclinical infections as possible, and not only in living animal, but also in carcasses of dead ones. As the actively moving creatures in blood can be detected easier than motionless ones, the finding of the microfilariae is promoted by using such way of haemolysis that does not kill them. Instead of the traditional Knott’s method therefore, they suggest to use sodium lauryl sulphate for haemolysis and Nile blue for staining living and dead microfilariae both in order to see them better. Clotted blood of the dead animals can be investigated easily for microfilariae if a bit of clot is immersed into a dark solution of alkaline histological dye (i.e. methylene or Nile blue) then it is pressed apart on microscopic slide.