Intestinal parasites of Tolypeutes matacus, the most frequently consumed armadillo in the Chaco region

Abstract

The southern three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes matacus (Desmarest, 1804) is distributed from eastern Bolivia, south-west Brazil, the Gran Chaco of Paraguay and Argentina, and lives in areas with dry vegetation. This armadillo is one of the most frequently consumed species by people in this area. The objective of this work was test for zoonotic species among helminths in 12 intestinal tracts of T. matacus in a locality from the Argentinean Chaco (Chamical, La Rioja province). The parasites were studied with conventional parasite morphology and morphometrics, and prevalence, mean intensity and mean abundance were calculated for each species encountered. In the small intestine, seven species of nematodes and two species of cestodes were identified. In the large intestine, two species of nematodes were recorded. We did not find zoonotic species but have added new host records. This study in the Chaco region thus contributes to growing knowledge of the parasite fauna associated with armadillo species in this region.