L. Forró szerk.: Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 8. 1993 (Budapest, 1993)

Kriska, T.: Parasitic helminths of house mouse (Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758) in Hungary

Geographical distribution: cosmopolitan Description: Male: Body length 12.5-25.0 mm, maximum width 0.29-0.80 mm. Esophagus length 2.065-2.510 mm. Excretory pore 0.25-0.41 mm from anterior end. Distance of anus 0.15-0.23 mm from posterior end. Spicules unlike 0.54-1.05 x 0.019-0.024 mm the small ones and 1.11-1.22 x 0.036-0.040 mm the largests. Female: Body length 17.5-47 mm, maximum width 0.34-2.00 mm. Esophagus 3.00-5.183 mm. Vulva 4.80-15.00 from anterior end. Distance of anus 0.30-0.64 mm from posterior end. Eggs ovoid 0.051-0.062 x 0.033-0.036 mm (Fig. 5). Localities: 4. Szalafő, one case, September; 6. Nagyvázsony, one case, May; 9. Aranyosgadány, one case, July; 14. Gyöngyös, one case, August; 20. Tákos, one case, November. 1.2 percent of the host population was infected by M. muris, the intensity of infection was 10.6. The levels of prevalence by seasons were: 0.0% in winter, 1.0% in spring, 3.9% in summer and 0.6% in autumn. Discussion 295 of 590 examined specimens were infected by helminths (50%). Neither susceptibility of all helminths nor of single helminth species did vary by the sex of the host. 11 helminth species were found alltogether, 5 of them are tapeworms 6 of them nematode. 8 helminth species are considered to be common parasites of house mice, while Trichocephalus muris, Syphacia stroma and Mastophorus muris were new ones. S. stroma was recorded from house mice only once by Russian authors, but this record is not perfectly reliable. The fact that the helminths were preliminarly prepared and it was not possible to check the host animals lead us to conclude that there is a need for further investigations. Data of infection of house mouse are summarized in Tables 2-3. Table 2. Prevalence and intensity of helminth infection in the Hungarian mouse population Species Host Infected Helminth Infestation n n n prev.% int. C. pusilla 590 39 106 6.6 2.7 H. fratema 590 6 31 1.0 5.2 H. straminea 590 14 112 2.4 8.0 T. taeniaeformis 590 79 95 13.4 1.2 M. symmetrica 590 20 144 3.4 6.9 T. muris 590 50 358 8.5 7.2 H. polygyrus 590 64 735 10.8 11.3 A. tetraptera 590 108 2850 18.3 25.3 S. obvelata 590 32 648 5.4 20.3 S. stroma 590 1 205 0.2 205.0 M. muris 590 7 74 1.2 10.6