Parasitic worms in vertebrates from Sinaloa, how much do we know about them?

Abstract

Parasites are very common in nature and at least 50% of the species living on the planet are parasites. Helminths colloquially known as worms are one of the most common groups of parasites. In Mexico, these worms have been studied for more than ninety years and there is an important, but still insufficient knowledge of their diversity in wild vertebrates. In this paper we present an overview of the knowledge about the species of worms that parasitize vertebrates in the state of Sinaloa, located in the northwestern coastal zone of the Mexican Pacific, a territory with a wide diversity of ecosystems (terrestrial and marine) and an important biodiversity of vertebrates; however, little is known about the worms that parasitize them, in comparison with other states of the Mexican Republic. Almost one hundred papers have been published reporting the presence of worms in wild vertebrates (between papers and theses), having studiWed 78 species of hosts (bony fish, elasmobranchs, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals). A total of 117 helminths species have been recorded, including 11 acanthocephalans (thorny-headed worms), 15 nematodes (roundworms), and 96 Platyhelminthes (flatworms). Some of these species are important. After all, they infect commercially important or farmed fish, such as tilapia, and others because they are zoonotic (transmitted to humans through fish consumption). There are still many species of worms to be discovered because there are still many vertebrates to be studied. The Aquatic and Environmental Parasitology Laboratory of the Marine Sciences School, Autonomous University of Sinaloa is currently conducting numerous studies on the diversity of parasites that infect fish in the Bay of Mazatlán, as well as farmed fish such as tilapia and Pacific fat sleeper.