Strigea falconis is a common parasite of birds of prey and owls widely distributed in the Holarctic. We aimed to characterise S. falconis from Iceland via integrative taxonomic approach and to contribute to the understanding of its circulation in the Holarctic. We recovered adult S. falconis from two gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) collected in 2011 and 2012 in Iceland (Reykjanes Peninsula, Westfjords) and characterised them by morphological and molecular genetic (D2 of rDNA, cox1, ND1 of the mDNA) methods. We provide the first species record of S. falconis in Iceland which to the best of our knowledge is its northernmost distributional range. The presence of S. falconis in Iceland is surprising, as there are no suitable intermediate hosts allowing completion of its life cycle. Gyrfalcons are fully sedentary in Iceland; thus, the only plausible explanation is that they acquired their infection by preying upon migratory birds arriving from Europe. Our data indicate that the most likely candidates are Anseriformes and Charadriiformes. Also, we corroborate the wide geographical distribution of S. falconis, as we found a high degree of similarity between our haplotypes and sequences of mesocercariae from frogs in France and of a metacercaria from Turdus naumanni in Japan, and adults from Buteo buteo and Circus aeruginosus from the Czech Republic. The case of Strigea falconis shows the advantages of a complex life cycle and also depicts its pitfalls when a parasite is introduced to a new area with no suitable intermediate hosts. In Iceland, gyrfalcons are apparently dead-end hosts for S. falconis.

• Klíčová slova
• Digenea, Gyrfalcon, Life cycle, Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, Raptors, Trematoda,
• MeSH
• Falconiformes * MeSH
• stadia vývoje MeSH
• Trematoda * genetika   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH
• Island epidemiologie   MeSH

During 2012-2014 up to 286 birds of the orders Falconiformes (5 species), Accipitriformes (11 species), and Strigiformes (7 species) were examined for trematodes and this represents the first detailed study in Slovakia. A total of 12 trematode species belonging to the families Diplostomidae, Cyathocotylidae, Strigeidae, and Opisthorchiidae were identified. Rare infections were found in falcons where only two species (40 %) and three of 85 examined birds (3.5 %) were infected with a low range of two to four worms of generalists Strigea falconis or Plagiorchis elegans. Contrary to that, ten accipitriformes species (90.9 %) and 63 of 156 bird individuals (40.4 %) were infected with nine flukes: Conodiplostomum perlatum, Conodiplostomum spathula, Neodiplostomum attenuatum, Neodiplostomum spathoides, Parastrigea flexilis, Strigea falconis, Strigea vandenbrokae, Paracoenogonimus ovatus, and Metorchis bilis. S. falconis and N. attenuatum were the most frequent, occurring in parallel in eight and four bird species, in numbers up to 575 and 224. The intensity of infection with other fluke species was low ranging from one to 13 worms. Three owl (Strigiformes) representatives (42.9 %) were exclusive hosts for Neodiplostomum canaliculatum and Strigea strigis, and the proportion of positive and dissected individual birds was 10:45 (22.2 %). Both trematodes occurred in two or three owl species. In conclusion, apparent dissimilarity of trematode load of three unrelated lines of falcons, eagles, and owls was revealed. The present study extends our knowledge on the composition of the trematode fauna in Slovakia as all species except S. falconis and P. elegans that represent new host and species records in Slovakia.

• Klíčová slova
• Accipitriformes, Falconiformes, Host specificity, Strigiformes, Trematoda,
• MeSH
• dravci parazitologie   MeSH
• Falconiformes parazitologie   MeSH
• hostitelská specificita MeSH
• infekce červy třídy Trematoda epidemiologie   parazitologie   veterinární   MeSH
• játra parazitologie   MeSH
• nemoci ptáků epidemiologie   parazitologie   MeSH
• parazitární nemoci střev epidemiologie   parazitologie   veterinární   MeSH
• parazitární nemoci u zvířat epidemiologie   parazitologie   MeSH
• střeva parazitologie   MeSH
• Stringiformes parazitologie   MeSH
• Trematoda izolace a purifikace   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Slovenská republika epidemiologie   MeSH