Massive presence of Echinococcus granulosus (Cestoda, Taeniidae) cysts in a wild boar (Sus scrofa) from Spain.

We report a heavy infestation of a free-living wild boar sow from Spain with Echinococcus granulosus cysts and state its molecular characterization. We found >65 hydatid cysts in the thoracic and abdominal cavities of the sow. Parasites were routinely processed for their identification and histopathology and DNA molecular characterization of the E. granulosus cysts were carried out. The polymerase chain reaction results confirmed the E. granulosus identity of the cysts and restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing revealed its G1 genotype. Our results suggest that wild boar could be involved in the epidemiology of E. granulosus, particularly considering that large amounts of carcass remains are available to dogs and wolves during the hunting season. The recent population increase of the wild boar in Spain and the DNA confirmation that the wild boar isolate shared identical sequences to the sheep strain emphasize the importance of the reported finding in public health.