METAZOAN PARASITES OF SIKA-DEER FROM EAST HOKKAIDO, JAPAN AND ECOLOGICAL ANALYSES OF THEIR ABOMASAL NEMATODES

Metazoan parasites of 50 sika deer (Cervus nippon yezoensis) collected in March 1991 in the Ashore District in east Hokkaido, Japan, were ev aluated. Ten species of helminths and three species of ectoparasites w ere obtained. Estimated abundance of males of two species of abomasal nematodes, Spiculopteragia houdemeri and Rinadia andreevae, were posit ively correlated with each other, and were overdispersed; S. houdemeri followed Poisson's and R. andreevae followed a negative binomial dist ribution. No significant relationship was detected between the estimat ed abundance of males of these two nematode species and nutritional co ndition of tile hosts. Using a general linear model, the fourth-root t ransformed estimated abundance of male S. houdemeri was influenced by the main effects of host sex and age. This phenomenon was attributable to the ecological and behavioral features of tile deer. The low diver sity of the abomasal nematode community was regarded as the result of the extinction of some species of nematodes on Hokkaido Island.