A new European bison parasite for science

A new European bison parasite for science

The European bison, Bison bonasus, is the largest land mammal in Europe. Not only is it considered a relic of the Pleistocene megafauna and an endangered animal, it is also a unique object of parasitological research. The current populations were restored from the members of a species that was made extinct in the wild, and with it, its natural parasitofauna, later replaced by parasites obtained from cattle or deer. Out of about 90 species of parasites recorded in bison, only three specific (monoxenic) species were known until quite recently. The first was Trypanosoma wrublewski Wladimiroff et Yakimoff, 1909 and the second, Bisonicola sedecimdecembrii (Eichler, 1946) described from museum materials; the biology of the latter was latter examined in bison from present populations by Joanna N. Izdebska from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Parasitology, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, who also redescribed the species and its life cycle. At the end of the 20th century, J.N. Izdebska also discovered a specific skin mite from the Demodecidae family, later described as Demodex bisonianus Kadulski et Izdebska, 1996, inhabiting the Meibomian glands of the eyelids.

Researchers from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Parasitology have recently discovered and described a previously unknown representative of the same mite family, living in the bison's nose region. Known as the cause of disease in domestic animals and humans, the Demodecidae mites are usually asymptomatic in wild mammals, and due to their microscopic size and hidden lifestyle, as skin or tissue parasites, they are difficult to detect.

The work was published in the prestigious parasitological journal International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213224422000037?via%3Dihub#!

More data on bison parasitic arthropods can be found in another new publication by the same authors: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/2/75/htm