ECTOPARASITOS DE PEQUENOS MAMÍFEROS NÃO VOADORES DO BRASIL: TENDÊNCIAS, LACUNAS E UM ESTUDO DE CASO

Abstract

Brazil is one of the countries that has one of the greatest biodiversity in the world, harboring a immense variety of species. However, biodiversity conservation becomes an increasing challenge in the face of increasing deforestation and degradation of ecosystems due to urban anthropic expansion. The proximity of human beings to animals is another worrying factor, since wild animals, such as small mammals of the order Rodentia (rodents) and order Didelphimorphia (marsupials), are easily found in wild and urban environments and act as hosts for ectoparasites that can transmit a number of zoonotic pathogens, important for public health. Thus, we have structured the dissertation into two chapters, which aim to: i- investigate trends and gaps in scientific production on the relationship between ectoparasites and their hosts belonging to the orders mentioned above and ii- describe the species of ectoparasites found in small mammals in a fragmented landscape of the southern state of Goiás, central Brazil. For the first chapter, we searched for documents published in the main databases Web of Science and Scopus. We found 602 published documents, with emphasis on the United States of America, Brazil and Israel, countries in which researchers published in high-impact international journals focused on the health area. Among Brazilian production, more than half was conducted in the Atlantic Forest biome. In the second chapter, we highlight the order Mesostigmata (n = 153 ectoparasites distributed in eight taxa), with the Laelapidae family being the most frequent, with emphasis on the species Gigantolaelaps wolffsohni. The ectoparasite-host relationship has been investigated, mainly with a focus on health, with ecological knowledge in the background, and this has implications for biodiversity conservation. Small mammals in the region studied are parasitized by an important diversity of ectoparasites. Despite its hotspot status, the Cerrado has been poorly investigated regarding the life history of these mammals. Thus, it is noteworthy that this is the first study involving the relationship ectoparasites-small non-flying mammals in this part of Brazil.