Parasitic Helminths from Himalayan Field Mice, Apodemus gurkha and Sikkim Vole, Microtus sikimensis, in the Himalayas, Nepal

Abstract

Although there are many reports on parasitic helminths obtained from the rodents belonging to the Muridae, there has been no report on Apodemus gurkha and Microtus sikimensis. Accordingly, 14 individuals of A. gurkha and 9 individuals of M. sikimensis collected from Myagdi district of the Himalayas, Nepal, in November of 1994 and March of 1996 were examined parasitologically. Heligmosomoides neopolygyrus, Heligmonoides sp., Syphacia agraria, Heterakis spumosa, Rictularia cristata and Catenotaenia sp.were obtained from A. gurkha, and Carolinensis minutus, Syphacia montana, Aonchotheca murissylvatici, Trichuris sp., Anoplocephalidae gen.sp.and a metacestode of Taeniidae gen.sp.were obtained from Microtus sikimensis. These species, excluding Heligmonoides sp.which seems to be host specific to A. gurkhaand belongs to a new species, are the common species from the genera Apodemus or Microtus in the Eurasian Continent.