# Survey the Occurrence of Globocephalus urosubulatus (Nematoda: Ancylostomatidae) in Wild Boars (Sus scrofa) in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

## TL;DR

This study found that all wild boars in São Paulo, Brazil, were infected with a specific intestinal worm and noted a new asymmetry in the worm's structure.

## Contribution

First report of asymmetry in the copulatory bursa of Globocephalus urosubulatus in free-ranging wild boars.

## Key findings

- All 10 wild boars were infected with Globocephalus urosubulatus.
- The copulatory bursa of the nematodes showed asymmetry between left and right lobes.
- This asymmetry has not been previously documented in the literature.

## Abstract

Free-ranging wild boars are considered exotic animals and cause various ecological, economic and health-related damages in Brazil. With the increasing trend of outdoor pig farming, the chances of domestic animals coming into contact with wildlife have risen, leading to a greater risk of disease transmission. Studies on gastrointestinal parasites in wild boars in Brazil are scarce, so we investigated the occurrence of parasitic helminths in these animals. In our study, a total of 10 animals—5 males and 5 females of different ages—were examined. After these animals were culled by control and hunting teams, their digestive systems were collected and examined. A total of 2750 helminths were collected from the small intestine of all animals, and after evaluating their morphologies, we identified them as Globocephalus urosubulatus. The morphological characteristics observed in the nematodes correspond to those previously described; however, we found that the copulatory bursa was asymmetrical, a characteristic that has not yet been recorded in the literature.

Although previous studies have characterized the helminth fauna of wild boars kept in captivity in Brazil, records on these helminths in free-ranging animals are still scarce. In view of this, we aimed in our work to investigate the occurrence and morphological and morphometric characteristics of gastrointestinal helminths in wild Sus scrofa from the northwest region of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The digestive systems of 10 animals (5 males and 5 females of different ages) were used in this study. Each anatomical segment was washed and sieved under running water, and the helminths were separated and identified using light and scanning electron microscopy, according to their morphological characteristics. A total of 2750 (1152 males and 1598 females) nematode specimens were collected from the small intestine of these wild boars, and all of them presented the morphological characteristics of Globocephalus urosubulatus. However, one characteristic is of particular interest because it has not yet been reported in the literature: a marked asymmetry between the lobes and their respective rays of the copulatory bursa, with the left one being larger than the right one. In this research, we identified the presence of G. urosubulatus in all the examined free-ranging wild boars and reported for the first time in the literature the asymmetry in the copulatory bursa.