Trichinella sp. in red foxes ( XXXX ) from Catalonia, NE Spain.

@entity1 @entity1707 @entity13616 @entity281 @entity8573
European legislation allows the official recognition of Trichinella-free @entity1707 holdings, provided Trichinella sp. @entity281 is absent from @entity1 and prevalence of Trichinella sp. @entity281 in red foxes ( @entity13616 ) is below 0.1% in the area, region or country. Tibialis anterior muscle samples from 1,319 red foxes captured in Catalonia (NE Spain) between 1998 and 2007 were analyzed for Trichinella sp. using the digestion method. Four foxes resulted positive (one in 1999, one in 2002 and two in 2006), accounting for a low prevalence (0.3%). However, this prevalence was concentrated in mountain or rural areas with a low sample size, reaching high local prevalences. The two positive samples in 2006 were characterized as Trichinella britovi, and a sylvatic cycle of @entity8573 seems to occur, at least in the rural insufficiently sampled regions of Catalonia. Overall, the results obtained do not currently allow the establishment of Trichinella-free @entity1707 holdings in the study area, but further research is needed to better know the prevalence and cycle of Trichinella sp. in Catalonia.
