Adeleidea pseudoparasites in Cerdocyon thous Linnaeus, 1766 in Southern

Abstract

Carnivores may have very varied eating habits, including the consumption of insects free in the environment or within grains. The ingestion of these invertebrates is essential for the dispersion of some kinds of coccidia in nature, which occurs through stool. This study shows the presence of Adeleidae pseudoparasites in Cerdocyon thous faeces in Southern Brazil, as well as alerting veterinarians to the existence of spurious infections that may lead to misleading descriptions of new species in these hosts, or attribute wrongly the presence of these protozoa to illness symptoms.

Keywords

• Pseudoparasite
• Coccidia
• Adeleidae
• Carnivore.