Bacterial Community of the Digestive Tract of the European Medicinal Leech (Hirudo verbana) from the Danube River
Microbiome study published in Microb Ecol (2019)
Abstract
The digestive tract of medicinal leeches from commercial suppliers has been investigated previously and comprises of a relatively simple bacterial community. However, the microbiome of medicinal leeches collected directly from the natural habitat has not been examined. In this study, we characterized the bacterial community in the digestive tract (anterior crop, posterior crop, and intestine) of the European medicinal leech, Hirudo verbana, collected from the Danube river using culture-independent and culture-dependent approaches. Culture-independent approach confirmed that the digestive tract of H. verbana carries a relatively simple bacterial community with species richness in the individual samples ranging from 43 to164. The dominant bacterial taxon was Mucinivorans sp. (49.7% of total reads), followed by Aeromonas sp. (18.7% of total reads). Several low abundance taxa, new for H. verbana, such as Phreatobacter, Taibaiella, Fluviicola, Aquabacterium, Burkholderia, Hydrogenophaga, Wolinella, and unidentified Chitinophagia, were also detected. The aerobic culturing approach showed Aeromonas veronii (Proteobacteria), the known leech symbiont, as the most dominant taxon followed by several Pseudomonas and Acidovorax spp. No significant differences in the bacterial community composition were detected among different parts of the digestive tract of individual leeches. However, the overall composition of the bacterial community among individual specimen varied significantly and this is possibly due to differences in leech age, feeding status, and blood source. Our results showed that the core bacterial community of H. verbana collected from the natural habitat is similar to that reported from the digestive tract of commercially supplied leeches maintained in the laboratory.
Abstract sourced from PubMed (NCBI) for the cited record. See the original publication for the authoritative version.
Resumen
First wild-collected H. verbana digestive-tract microbiome characterization. Mucinivorans sp. dominates (49.7% reads), followed by Aeromonas sp. (18.7%). Several novel low-abundance taxa identified. Wild-leech bacterial community is broadly similar to commercial-source leeches.
Por qué esto importa para la hirudoterapia
This study characterized the bacterial community in the digestive tract of European medicinal leeches (Hirudo verbana) collected from the Danube River, using both culture-independent and culture-dependent methods. The dominant taxa were Mucinivorans sp. (49.7% of reads) and Aeromonas sp. (18.7%), with several low-abundance taxa newly identified for this species. The core bacterial community was similar to that reported from commercially supplied laboratory leeches. For ASH's domain, this study is relevant as it characterizes the microbiome of the therapeutic leech species H. verbana from its natural habitat, advancing basic biological understanding of this organism. The honest caveat is that this is a microbiological/taxonomic study with no clinical component and no data related to hirudotherapy outcomes, pathogenicity, or infection risk.
Citación
Bacterial Community of the Digestive Tract of the European Medicinal Leech (Hirudo verbana) from the Danube River.
Neupane S et al. · Microbial ecology, 2019
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Añadido a la biblioteca ASH: May 26, 2026 · Última actualización del sitio: June 18, 2026