Trypanosoma Found in Synanthropic Mammals from Urban Forests of Paraná, Southern Brazil.

Trypanosoma cruzi is a parasitic protozoan that infects a diversity of hosts constituting the cycle of enzootic transmission in wild environments and causing disease in humans (Chagas disease) and domestic animals. Wild mammals constitute natural reservoirs of this parasite, which is transmitted by hematophagous kissing bugs of the family Reduviidae. T. cruzi is genetically subdivided into six discrete typing units (DTUs), T. cruzi (Tc)I to TcVI. In Brazil, especially in the state of Paraná, TcI and TcII are widely distributed. However, TcII is less frequently found in wild reservoirs and triatomine, and more frequently found in patients. The goal of this study was to investigate the natural occurrence of T. cruzi in wild synanthropic mammals captured in urban forest fragments of the Atlantic Forest of Paraná, southern Brazil. In this way, 12 opossums and 35 bats belonging to five species were captured in urban forest parks of the city of Maringá, Paraná, an area considered endemic for Chagas disease. PCR-kinetoplast DNA molecular diagnostic reveals Trypanosoma sp. infection in 12 (100%) Didelphis albiventris and 10 (40%) Artibeus lituratus. In addition to demonstrating the presence of Trypanosoma in the two groups of mammals studied, we obtained an isolate of the parasite genotyped as TcII by amplification of the cytochrome oxidase II gene by PCR, followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism with AluI, and confirmed by PCR of rDNA 24Sα. This is the first record of the encounter in wild mammals of Trypanosoma DNA (in A. lituratus) and T. cruzi DTU TcII (in D. albiventris) in the state of Paraná.

Abundância e frugivoria da quiropterofauna (Mammalia, chiroptera) de um fragmento no noroeste do Estado do Paraná, Brasil / Chiropterofauna abundance and frugivory in a forest remnant in northwestern Paraná State, Brazil

A abundância e a frugivoria de morcegos que compõem a taxocenose em uma área de mata ripária, à margem esquerda do rio Ivaí, foram foco do presente estudo. O Recanto Marista possui 57,6 hectares, dos quais 40,8 são cobertos por Floresta Estacional Semidecidual, situado no município de Doutor Camargo, região Noroeste do Estado do Paraná. Foram realizadas 14 noites de capturas de morcegos de maio de 2007 a janeiro de 2008, com redesneblina (7 x 2,5 m), totalizando 13.475 m² h de esforço amostral, distribuído em 72h de esforço. Foram capturados 193 indivíduos, representantes de dez espécies, pertencentes a duas famílias: Phyllostomidae (Artibeus lituratus, Sturnira lilium, Carollia perspicillata, Artibeus cf. fimbriatus, Artibeus planirotris, Desmodus rotundus e Pygoderma bilabiatum) e Vespertilionidae (Myotis nigricans, Eptesicus sp. e Lasiurus blossevillii). Um representante da família Molossidae (Molossus rufus) foi encontrado morto no solo. Foram consumidos frutos pertencentes às famílias Moraceae (Ficus guaranitica, Ficus insipida, Ficus sp. e Maclura tinctoria), Solanaceae (Solanum aspero-lanatum e Solanum sp.), Piperaceae (Piper aduncum, Piper amalago e Piper sp.) e Urticaceae (Cecropia pachystachya e Cecropia sp.).

This study aims to evaluate the abundance and frugivory of bats from the Recanto Marista, a small riparian forest remnant in the margins of the Ivaí river. The Recanto Marista has 57.6 ha, of which 40.8 ha are covered by semideciduous seasonal forest and is located in the Doutor Camargo municipality. Collections were conducted from May 2007 to January 2008 using mist nets (7 x 2.5 m) totaling 13,475 m² h and comprising about 72 hours. Ten species were found pertaining to two families, Phyllostomidae (Artibeus lituratus, Sturnira lilium, Carollia perspicillata, Artibeus cf. fimbriatus, Artibeus planirotris, Desmodus rotundus and Pygoderma bilabiatum) and Vespertilionidae (Myotis nigricans, Eptesicus sp. and Lasiurus blossevillii) totaling 193 specimens. One Molossus rufus individual was found dead on the ground. Fruits pertaining to the families Moraceae (Ficus guaranitica, Ficus insipida, Ficus sp. and Maclura tinctoria), Solanaceae (Solanum aspero-lanatum and Solanum sp.), Piperaceae (Piper aduncum, Piper amalago and Piper sp.) and Urticaceae (Cecropia pachystachya and Cecropia sp.) made part of the diet of the captured bat species.