A myxosporean species found to develop in the liver of 10 out of 24 common shrews, Sorex araneus L., caught in South Bohemia, Czech Republic, was identified as Soricimyxum fegati Prunescu, Prunescu, Pucek et Lom, 2007, the unique representative of the genus and the first myxosporean species known to develop from plasmodia to spores in a terrestrial mammal. The original description of this species, based on fixed material, is supplemented with new data based on fresh material and with partial sequence of SSU rDNA (GenBank Acc. No. EU232760). Phylogenetic analysis of SSU rDNA revealed that S. fegati is closely related to myxosporeans infecting gall bladders of freshwater fish.
Soricimyxum fegati gen. et sp. n. is a new myxosporean (Myxozoa) species discovered in the liver of shrews, Sorex araneus L., collected in the Bialowieza primeval forest (Poland). Both developmental stages and mature spores were found during a histological study. The infection had about 40% prevalence at the investigated locality. Plasmodia were polysporic. Elongated plasmodia with an average size of 30 by 8 µm occupied bile ducts and larger rounded plasmodia up to 80 µm in diameter were found in liver parenchyma where they most probably entered after the ducts had been destructed. Plasmodia in both locations elicited a vigorous inflammatory reaction. Spores were of an ovoid shape, 7 µm long, 5.4 µm wide and about 3.5 µm thick. They had two shell valves and two equal polar capsules, located in opposite ends of the spore.