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Helminths Were Found in 70.6% of 109 European Hares Examined in Türkiye

Wild European hare running on sand on Spiekeroog, Germany
Research · Disease, parasites & microbiology

A 2026 study examined internal organs from 109 European hares (Lepus europaeus) from Sivas Province in Türkiye for parasitic worms, known as helminths. The hares had been taken by licensed hunters between November 2024 and January 2025. Helminths include several major groups of parasitic worms; in this study five species were found in the intestines and one in the liver.

At least one helminth species was found in 77 of the 109 hares, or 70.6%. This percentage describes how many animals carried at least one of the detected worm species, not how severely ill they were. Thirty-nine hares carried one helminth species, while 38—34.9% of all animals examined—carried two or more species at the same time.

Whipworm was the most common parasite

Six helminth species were identified: Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Andrya rhopalocephala, Mosgovoyia pectinata, Trichuris leporis, Passalurus ambiguus and Nematodirus leporis. T. leporis, a whipworm that lives in the large intestine, was the most common and occurred in 52.3% of the hares. Heavy whipworm infections can damage the intestinal wall and have been associated with anaemia, digestive problems and poorer general condition.

P. ambiguus was found in 31.2% of the hares and N. leporis in 22.9%. D. dendriticum, a liver fluke, was the only helminth found in the liver and occurred in 3.7% of the animals. A. rhopalocephala, an intestinal tapeworm, was recorded in Türkiye for the first time.

Six helminth species identified in European hares in Türkiye
The six helminth species identified in the study. Kalkan et al. (2026), Acta Parasitologica, CC BY 4.0. Source.

DNA barcodes revealed several parasite lineages

The researchers also analysed a short region of mitochondrial DNA called COI from selected parasites. COI is often used as a genetic barcode because differences in this DNA sequence can help distinguish species and compare closely related lineages. A haplotype is one particular DNA variant of such a marker.

When the new sequences were combined with COI records already stored in GenBank from parasites collected from several host species and countries, the comparison contained 11 haplotypes of D. dendriticum and five of P. ambiguus. These numbers therefore describe genetic diversity in the wider international sequence datasets, not 11 and five variants found only among the hares from Sivas. The authors present the new Turkish sequences as a starting point for understanding how these parasite lineages are distributed among wildlife hosts and regions.

Sources and image credit

  1. Kalkan, K., Erol, U., Sahin, O. F., Sakar, H. F., & Altay, K. (2026). Helminthological survey of the European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) in Türkiye, with a note on haplotype and network analyses of Dicrocoelium dendriticum and Passalurus ambiguus. Acta Parasitologica, 71, 84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-026-01278-1

Image: Stephan Sprinz — wild European hare on Spiekeroog, Germany, 30 May 2023; illustrative species photograph; cropped; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0 · Source

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