Factors determining the role of the domestic cat as an ecological stalemate of opisthorchiasis agent in the episootic phase of the loimoprocess of invasion

Abstract

An analysis of the ecological and ethological characteristics of the domestic cat presented in the literature data shows that the wild ancestors of this animal that lived in the desert did not participate in the evolution of the parasitic system of the opisthorchiasis agent. Formation of complex life cycles of trematodes of the family Opisthorchidae in the Cenozoic era occurred with the participation of representatives of mammals'different systematic groups. The domestic cat on the territories of Eastern Europe and Western Siberia historically did not participate in the formation of the parasitic system Opisthorchis felineus, because it appeared in these territories much later, when the parasitic system of the agent existed there since the end of the Miocene. The main factors that determined the role of the domestic cat as the definitive host and the ecological stalemate of the opisthorchiasis agent were its interaction with the environment and the genetically determined animal's behavior.