Helminth Parasites of Bats (Chiroptera: Rhinopomatidae Bonaparte, 1838) from the Persian Gulf Coastal Area

Bats are natural reservoir hosts of several zoonotic infections. Few studies have demonstrated gut helminth community parasite in bats. In the present study, we investigated two intestinal helminths of two bat species, Rhinopoma muscatellum, and Rhinopoma microphyllum, from Hormozgan province, southern Iran.

We received digestive tracts of 56 Rhinopoma bats previously captured by several biologists. The specimens were precisely dissected and examined for the parasitic helminths. The collected helminths were cleared in the lactophenol and identified using reliable morphological and morphometrical key references.

In this study, 44 R. muscatellum and 6 R. microphyllum species were examined, among which 15 (26.7%) had infections with parasitic worms. Lecithodendrium sp. and Castoria sp. were identified in the digestive tract of eight and four individually examined R. muscatellum bats, respectively. Also, in three R. microphyllum bats, a few spirurid nematodes with incomplete structures were detected.

We, for the first time, identified Lecithodendrium sp., Castoria sp., in R. muscatellum from south of Iran. Due to the insectivorous biological trait of bats, the most abundant helminth was Lecithodendrium sp. Further study with more samples is needed to describe the helminths fauna of microbats in Iran taxonomically.