Dr. Murai Éva - Gubányi András szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 27. (Budapest, 1994)

ingly, while F. magna is widespread in North America, in the Old World it has only been reported from Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Czechoslovakia as a consequence of an introduction of uncertain date (Malek 1980, Pfeiffer 1982, Boch and Supperer 1983). As a consequence of the natural movement of big game, it was expected that this parasite would spread to other countries of Europe. Its unnoticed spread is facilitated by the fact that the large liver fluke is usually not too pathogenic in cervids, which prevents the early diagnosis of clinically inapparent infections. In contrast, hollowhorned ruminants, pigs, horses and some rodents are paratenic hosts of the helminth or, rather, they do not or only exceptionally shed eggs of the fluke, and the outcome of F magna infection is in most cases fatal in these species. Sheep are especially susceptible to F magna invasion and usually die already in the acute stage (Price 1953, Erhardová-Kotrlá and Blazek 1970, Foreyt and Todd 1976Ű). All these facts underscore the importance of the recent finding that deer infected by F magna occur also in Hungary. A remarkable feature of this finding is that the infected deer were found in the Szigetköz, an area in northwestern Hungary, whose changing structure and status of wildlife are nowadays a matter of great concern both to environmentalists and to the general public. CASE REPORT It was about 3 years ago that during the evisceration of red deer (Cervus elaphus) bagged in the Szigetköz area, between Dunaremete and Győr, hunters first noticed the presence of a large fluke in the liver of some animals. Organs were submitted to the laboratory of the Veterinary and Food Control Station of Győr-Sopron County, where F magna infection was diagnosed by the laboratory specialists. The importance of this new fluke infestation prompted the veterinarians of the Central Veterinary Institute to initiate confirmative examinations in order to collect fluke specimens furnishing conclusive evidence, as well as to record to prevalence of infection. At the Institute's request, in late March of the subsequent year, a hind was bagged on the basis of a separate bagging licence outside the hunting season. The liver of that animal was submitted to the institute. The thickened, whitish Glisson's capsule of the partially lacerated liver, which had originally weighed approx. 4 kg, was covered by outgrowths measuring 1-2 cm and consisting of tough fibres, primarily on the portal surface facing the rumen. White connective tissue fibres could be seen on the entire surface of the organ; these fibres connected the flattened hepatic lobes of otherwise normal shape, or continued in the fibre network of the omentum or the parietal peritoneum. The liver was tense and compact to the touch, and softer foci the size of a nut were seen indistinctly protruding over its surface on all sides. On the cut surface of the pale brown liver parenchyma a non-confluent, blackish-brownish discolouration was seen, which resembled a nutmeg pattern of ragged distribution, but was much rougher and less distinct than that. Here and there, pigmentation was accompanied by connective tissue proliferation; however, neither pigmentation nor connective