Ogmogaster antarctica (Digenea: Notocotylidae) infecting a dwarf minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Cetartiodactyla
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Ogmogaster antarctica (Digenea: Notocotylidae) infecting a dwarf minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Cetartiodactyla: Balaenopteridae) from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean Mariana Bertholdi Ebert 1 & Juliana Marigo 2 & Guilherme Guerra Neto 3 & Marta Jussara Cremer 3 & Reinaldo José da Silva 1 Received: 14 November 2019 / Accepted: 12 February 2020 # Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2020
Abstract Digeneans of the genus Ogmogaster Jägerskiöld, 1891 are intestinal parasites of whales and pinnipeds. Due to the difficulty in recovering these parasites from opportunistic stranding events of their hosts, very little morphological and molecular data are available on the species of this genus. During a beach monitoring survey on the Southern Brazilian coast, a dwarf minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata (Lacépède, 1804) was necropsied and some digeneans were found in its intestine. Morphological and molecular analyses based on the ribosomal DNA SSU and the mitochondrial DNA COI genes were conducted. The morphological data along with the phylogenetic reconstructions allowed the identification of Ogmogaster antarctica Johnston, 1931. This is the first report of O. antarctica infecting a B. acutorostrata in the South Atlantic Ocean. The morphological data, the molecular characterization and the phylogenetic positioning of O. antarctica presented in this study contribute to the knowledge of the helminth diversity of large whales. Keywords Notocotylidae . Intestinal parasite . Whale . Molecular characterization . rDNA SSU gene . mtDNA COI gene . Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
Introduction To better understand host-parasite relationships, detailed reports on helminth diversity are broadly needed. Currently, the availability of parasites from large whales relies almost exclusively on their strandings and subsequent necropsy to collect helminths (Briscoe et al. 2016). Recovering these organisms from such opportunistic stranding events of their large hosts is
* Mariana Bertholdi Ebert [email protected] 1
Institute of Biosciences, Department of Parasitology, São Paulo State University (UNESP) Campus Botucatu, 250, Botucatu, São Paulo 18618-689, Brazil
2
School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Department of Pathology, São Paulo University (USP), 87, São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-270, Brazil
3
Laboratory of Ecology and Conservation of Coastal and Marine Tetrapods, University of the Region of Joinville (UNIVILLE), Duque de Caxias Road, 6.365, São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina 89240-000, Brazil
a challenging task and, as a result, they lack on detailed morphological descriptions along with molecular information. Minke whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata Lacépède, 1804 are cosmopolitan worldwide distributed species (Perrin and Brownell 2002). Their taxonomic status is yet to be resolved, but three different lineages have already been suggested based on morphological and genetic differences (Wada et al. 1991; Rice 1998; Pastene 1994, 2010). The species lineage occurring in the Southe
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