[Dissemination of helminths by the introduction of game animals]

The introduction of game animals and its practical consequences were studied in several areas of Bohemia and Moravia. There are 3 autochthonous species among the 8 game animal species living in Czechoslovakia. An exchange of parasites occurred among endemic and introduced game species. This applied even to parasite species which had always been considered to be highly host-specific. We considered also the possibility of a transmission of parasites from introduced game animals to domestic animals (sheep, cattle). From a theoretical point of view, parasites carried with their hosts to new sites might cause some taxonomic problems, because different conditions of the external environment including a change in intermediate and definitive host, climate, etc. to which the parasite of its germs has to become adopted, might be responsible for various morphological and metrical changes. These might lead to an erroneous systematic arrangement of the parasite or even to the description of a new species.