Dataset cited on article "Distribution of Trichinella britovi larval burden in muscular districts of naturally infected wild species in the Central Apennines, Italy"
Description
The data of present study on the larval load of Trichinella-positive carcasses complement those of similar studies in pine marten and extend to wolf and fox species the identification of muscle districts predictive of the overall larval load of a carcass. In these species, the digestion of diaphragm and lower part of forelimb showed the best diagnostic capacity (the highest average value of LPG), respectively in the wolf and red fox. While the back district in the wolf and the rump in the red fox showed the highest predictive value for estimating the overall larval load of carcasses (the best r2 lpg values). In spite of the few number of examined animals and the unavoidable biases related to the variability of age, sex, carcass conditions and the same technique of muscle separation, the estimation of larval biomass of T. britovi infected carcasses, obtained by determining predictive LPGs and using the estimation of the overall muscle mass of an animal, is the basis for further studies on Trichinella contamination at the level of host populations. These studies should complement data from this study with those from the Trichinella host populations censuses. Knowledge of larval biomass at population level and its evolution over time may allow the adoption or strengthening of control measures in the territory based on the targeted recovery of host species' carcasses from the environment.