Tunga penetrans occurrence in Panthera onca crashed in the MT northern region

Tungiasis is a neglected parasitic skin disease, caused by the female sand flea Tunga penetrans penetration, that is associated with poverty and occurs in many poor resourced communities in the Caribbean, South America and Africa. Although its effects on humans and domestic animals are well described in the literature, its epidemiology in indigenous populations remains enigmatic and little is known about the tungiasis impact on wild animals, such as jaguars, the only Panthera genus member on the American continent, an important species as an indicator of environmental integrity, which, in Brazil, is on the list of animals threatened with extinction by the Environment Ministry, categorized as vulnerable. The carnivore population decline in Amazon would be accelerated, especially in the eastern and southern border of the Amazonian domain, and it is known that anthropic factors favor the spread of generalist pathogens to new environments and species, representing a greater risk for wild populations. Thus, ectoparasites identification in jaguars is important not only to understand the role of this feline in maintaining the vectors in the wild, but also to know possible agents that can be transmitted by them. The objective of the present work is to report the tungiasis occurrence in five jaguars run over in Sinop, Sorriso and Lucas do Rio Verde, northern MT, between 2018 and 2020; this being the first scientific report found of parasitism by T. penetrans in jaguars in the Amazon biome. The lesions were found on the animals paws, characterizing phases two to five of the Fortaleza classification, and the infestations were evaluated as high, in the youngest animals, to low, suggesting that parasitism degree would be related to the age of the host.