Leonardo Brustenga

• Master of Science
• PhD Student at University of Perugia

Distribution and genetic analysis of wild-living Eurasian beavers in Central Italy. The presence of the Eurasian beaver Castor fiber L. has been recently confirmed with two separated populations in Tuscany (Central Italy) and probably represents the result of an unofficial release. In late spring and summer 2021, seven reliable records of Eurasian...

Twenty-five species of cetaceans have been reported throughout the Mediterranean Sea, eight of them are commonly distributed in the whole basin and are regularly found beached or adrift in the sea. Stranded animals are frequently found in poor conservation status, preventing reliable identification; identification is thus often based solely on morp...

Parasites are considered important regulating factors of hosts’ population dynamics, not only in free-ranging wildlife, but also in captive bred animals. To date, only few studies have been carried out to assess the parasitic communities of the European brown hare in Southern Italy, and only one focused on animals in captivity. The aim of the prese...

Simple Summary Tapeworm infections are among the most relevant parasitic diseases in both human and animal health. Several tapeworms rely on wild animals to complete their life cycle, among them, taeniids from the Genus Echinococcus are particularly important as they are the causative agents of cystic and alveolar echinococcosis. The study’s aim wa...

The global decline of amphibian populations, with 40.7% of species classified as threatened, calls for innovative and ethical approaches in conservation genetics. Molecular biology advancements have introduced environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, primarily focusing on aquatic environments. However, the present study explores a novel non-invasive prot...

Giardia duodenalis is a widespread intestinal protozoan that affects mammals, including humans. Symptoms can range from being subclinical to causing severe abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Giardiasis often requires repeated treatment with synthetic drugs like metronidazole. In recent years, treatment failures in clinical cases involving nitroimidazole...

European hedgehogs are an important reservoir for many pathogens of health interest. Since hedgehogs live in close contact with humans, potential zoonotic fungi raise significant public health concerns, especially in areas with a high hedgehog density. From 2020 to 2023, 134 hedgehogs were surveyed for potential zoonotic fungi. Non-invasive methods...

Purpose of Review: Giardia duodenalis is a flagellate protozoan parasite of several mammals, that is transmitted via the fecal-oral route and causes gastrointestinal diarrheal illness. Molecular analyses of several genetic markers have classified G. duodenalis into eight assemblages (A to H) exhibiting different host specificities. Assemblages A an...

Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum infections in dogs are predominantly manifest asymptomatic. However, these infections can also present highly varied and potentially severe clinical signs. This is due to the parasites’ ability to replicate in a number of cell types within the host organism, with N. caninum exhibiting a particular tropism for...

Simple Summary The grey partridge (Perdix perdix Linnaeus, 1758), is a polytypic species with seven recognized subspecies, including one subspecies (P. p. italica Hartert, 1917) that is endemic to the Italian peninsula. Until World War II, the species was widespread across Europe, but then severely declined due to anthropogenic causes, including hy...

In the last few years, the number of studies on feline hepatozoonosis has increased, but our knowledge on the actual species of Hepatozoon and/or different genotypes affecting felines is still incipient. At least three species, namely Hepatozoon felis, H. canis, and H. silvestris, have been isolated from domestic cats in various countries. Addition...

Objectives Studies in humans have demonstrated the role of Toxoplasma gondii , a protozoan parasite, in epileptic seizures. This study aimed to investigate the serological correlation between T. gondii and N. caninum and epilepsy in dogs. Materials and Methods The medical record database of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Perugia,...

Aims Within the One Health paradigm, infectious disease surveillance have been developed for domestic and wild animals, leaving the role of captive non‐domestic populations, especially felids in zoos and circuses, less explored. This study addresses the proximity of these captive animals to urban areas, necessitating focused monitoring for potentia...

Hymenolepis (Rodentolepis) nana is an enteric tapeworm globally widespread in wild and captive rodents. The survey was carried out in three chinchilla breeding facilities and in one sugar glider breeding facility in Central and Southern Italy. One hundred and four chinchilla fecal pools and 40 sugar glider fecal pools were collected from cages hous...

Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI) is considered one of the major exceptions to the common rules of eukaryotic cell biology and germline formation. DUI is known in bivalves, which belong to the phylum Mollusca; conversely, no DUI evidence was found in some gastropod species. Investigating the presence of DUI in Nemertea is of particular interest...

Simple Summary The scientific community has recently turned its interest to wildlife, including birds, as a potential marker of environmental antimicrobial resistance. The aim of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility of 100 commensal Escherichia coli strains isolated from wild birds admitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospit...

Voles from the Genus Microtus are rodents with a subterranean lifestyle. Central Italy is populated by two species of the Genus, the North-Western Microtus savii and the South-Eastern endemic Microtus brachycercus. Although morphometric features able to help distinguish M. savii from M. brachycercus are lacking, a peculiar morphology of the anterio...

We report an updated and expanded list of Rock Partridge (Alectoris graeca) haplotypes found in wild animals throughout the Apennines of central Italy. Samples were collected and identified during a monitoring program of autochthonous Galliformes and from a private collection. The haplotypes were identified on a longer fragment of the mitochondrial...

Allergic rhinitis and asthma are the most common causes of chronic inflammation of the upper and lower airways in childhood. However, a nasal biomarker that can link to pulmonary inflammation is yet to be found. The present paper aims to investigate the possible role in inflammation of two inducible 70-kDa Heat Shock Proteins (HSP70) members, HSPA1...

The European mole Talpa europaea Linnaeus, 1758 is a quite common species in Central Italy. I report the first Isabelline individual of this species recorded in the scientific literature. Actually, this species is quite widespread throughout Europe, but coat-colouration anomalies have never been described in Central Italian mole populations. Furthe...