Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-55tpx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-10T12:19:59.497Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Development of the feline lungworms Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior in Helix aspersa snails

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2013

ALESSIO GIANNELLI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
RAFAEL ANTONIO NASCIMENTO RAMOS
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
GIADA ANNOSCIA
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
ANGELA DI CESARE
Affiliation:
Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università di Teramo, Teramo, Italy
VITO COLELLA
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
EMANUELE BRIANTI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie, Università degli Studi di Messina, Polo Universitario Annunziata, Messina, Italy
FILIPE DANTAS-TORRES
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy Departamento de Imunologia, Centro de Pesquisas Aggeu Magalhães (Fiocruz-PE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil
YASEN MUTAFCHIEV
Affiliation:
Institut po Bioraznoobrazie i Ekosistemni Izsledvaniya, Bŭlgarska Akademiya na Naukite, Sofiya, Bulgaria
DOMENICO OTRANTO*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Valenzano, Bari, Italy. E-mail: domenico.otranto@uniba.it

Summary

Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Strongylida, Angiostrongylidae) and Troglostrongylus brevior (Strongylida, Crenosomatidae) are regarded as important lungworm species of domestic felids, with the latter considered an emerging threat in the Mediterranean region. The present study aimed to assess their concurrent development in the mollusc Helix aspersa (Pulmonata, Helicidae). Thirty snails were infested with 100 first-stage larvae (L1) of A. abstrusus and T. brevior, isolated from a naturally infested kitten. Larval development was checked by digesting five specimens at 2, 6 and 11 days post infestation. Larvae retrieved were morphologically described and their identification was confirmed by specific PCR and sequencing. All H. aspersa snails were positive for A. abstrusus and T. brevior, whose larval stages were simultaneously detected at each time point. In addition, snails were exposed to outdoor conditions and examined after overwintering, testing positive up to 120 days post infestation. Data herein presented suggest that A. abstrusus and T. brevior develop in H. aspersa snails and may eventually co-infest cats. Data on the morphology of both parasitic species in H. aspersa provide additional information on their development and identification, to better understand the population dynamics of these lungworms in receptive snails and paratenic hosts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Altschul, S. F., Madden, T. L., Schäffer, A. A., Zhang, J., Zhang, Z., Miller, W. and Lipman, D. J. (1997). Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database search programs. Nucleic Acids Research 25, 33893402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, R. C. (2000). The superfamily Metastrongyloidea. In Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates. Their Development and Transmission, pp. 163164. CABI, Wallingford, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annoscia, G., Latrofa, M. S., Campbell, B. E., Giannelli, A., Ramos, R. A., Brianti, E., Dantas-Torres, F. and Otranto, D. (2013). Simultaneous detection of the feline lungworms Troglostrongylus brevior and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus by a newly developed duplex-PCR. Veterinary Parasitology (in press).Google Scholar
Ash, L. R. (1970). Diagnostic morphology of the third-stage larvae of Angiostrongylus cantonensis, Angiostrongylus vasorum, Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Anafilaroides rostratus (Nematoda: Metastrongyloides). Journal of Parasitology 56, 249253.Google Scholar
Barutzki, D. and Schaper, R. (2013). Occurrence and regional distribution of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus in cats in Germany. Parasitology Research 112, 855861. doi: 10.1007/s00436-012-3207-0.Google Scholar
Brianti, E., Gaglio, G., Giannetto, S., Annoscia, G., Latrofa, M. S., Dantas-Torres, F., Traversa, D. and Otranto, D. (2012). Troglostrongylus brevior and Troglostrongylus subcrenatus (Strongylida: Crenosomatidae) as agents of broncho-pulmonary infestation in domestic cats. Parasites and Vectors 5, 178. doi: 10.1186/1756-3305-5-178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brianti, E., Gaglio, G., Napoli, E., Falsone, L., Giannetto, S., Latrofa, M. S., Giannelli, A., Dantas-Torres, F. and Otranto, D. (2013). Evidence for direct transmission of the cat lungworm Troglostrongylus brevior (Strongylida: Crenosomatidae). Parasitology 140, 821824. doi: 10.1017/S0031182013000188.Google Scholar
Di Cesare, A., Castagna, G., Meloni, S., Milillo, P., Latrofa, S., Otranto, D. and Traversa, D. (2011). Canine and feline infections by cardiopulmonary nematodes in central and southern Italy. Parasitology Research 109(Suppl.), S87S96. doi: 10.1007/s00436-011-2405-5.Google Scholar
Di Cesare, A., Crisi, P. E., Di Giulio, E., Veronesi, F., Frangipane di Regalbono, A., Talone, T. and Traversa, D. (2013). Larval development of the feline lungworm Aelurostrongylus abstrusus in Helix aspersa . Parasitology Research 112, 31013108.Google Scholar
Euzeby, J. (1981). Diagnostic expérimental des helminthoses animales. Helminthes parasites de l'appareil respiratoire, 2nd Edn. Informations Techniques des Services Vétérinaires, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Gerichter, C. B. (1949). Studies on the nematodes parasitic in the lungs of Felidae in Palestine. Parasitology 39, 251262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gökpinar, S. and Yildiz, K. (2010). The effect of different temperatures on viability of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus first stage larvae in faeces of cats. Turkiye Parazitol Derg 34, 102105.Google Scholar
Guiller, A. and Madec, L. (2010). Historical biogeography of the land snail Cornu aspersum: a new scenario inferred from haplotype distribution in the Western Mediterranean basin. BMC Evolutionary Biology 10, 18. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-10-18.Google Scholar
Hamilton, J. M. (1969). On the migration, distribution, longevity and pathogenicity of larvae of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus in the snail, Helix aspersa . Journal of Helminthology 43, 319325.Google Scholar
Hobmaier, M. and Hobmaier, A. (1935). Intermediate hosts of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus of the cat. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 32, 16411646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jefferies, R., Vrhovec, M. G., Wallner, N. and Catalan, D. R. (2010). Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus sp. (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea) infections in cats inhabiting Ibiza, Spain. Veterinary Parasitology 173, 344348. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.06.032.Google Scholar
Little, S. (2011). Feline reproduction: problems and clinical challenges. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 13, 508515. doi: 10.1016/j.jfms.2011.05.008.Google Scholar
López, C., Panadero, R., Paz, A., Sánchez-Andrade, R., Díaz, P., Díez-Baños, P. and Morrondo, P. (2005). Larval development of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Nematoda, Angiostrongylidae) in experimentally infected Cernuella (Cernuella) virgata (Mollusca, Helicidae). Parasitology Research 95, 1316.Google Scholar
MAFF. (1986). Manual of Veterinary Parasitological Laboratory Techniques, 3rd Edn. HMSO, London, UK.Google Scholar
Majoros, G., Dán, A. and Erdélyi, K. (2010). A natural focus of the blood fluke Orientobilharzia turkestanica (Skrjabin, 1913) (Trematoda: Schistosomatidae) in red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Hungary. Veterinary Parasitology 170, 218223. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.02.032.Google Scholar
Ohlweiler, F. P., Guimarães, M. C., Takahashi, F. Y. and Eduardo, J. M. (2010). Current distribution of Achatina fulica, in the state of São Paulo including records of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Nematoda) larvae infestation. Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo 52, 211214.Google Scholar
Otranto, D., Brianti, E. and Dantas-Torres, F. (2013). Troglostrongylus brevior and a nonexistent ‘dilemma’. Trends in Parasitology 29, 517518. doi:10.1016/j.pt.2013.09.001.Google Scholar
Patterson-Kane, J. C., Gibbons, L. M., Jefferies, R., Morgan, E. R., Wenzlow, N. and Redrobe, S. P. (2009). Pneumonia from Angiostrongylus vasorum infection in a red panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens). Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 21, 270273.Google Scholar
Ramos, R. A., Giannelli, A., Dantas-Torres, F., Brianti, E. and Otranto, D. (2013). Survival of first-stage larvae of the cat lungworm Troglostrongylus brevior (Strongylida: Crenosomatidae) under different conditions. Experimental Parasitology 135, 570572.Google Scholar
Soldánová, M., Selbach, C., Kalbe, M., Kostadinova, A. and Sures, B. (2013). Swimmer's itch: etiology, impact, and risk factors in Europe. Trends in Parasitology 29, 6574. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2012.12.002.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. P., Lai, D. H., Zhu, X. Q., Chen, X. G. and Lun, Z. R. (2008). Human angiostrongyliasis. Lancet Infectious Diseases 8, 621630. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(08)70229-9.Google Scholar
Wu, S. S., French, S. W. and Turner, J. A. (1997). Eosinophilic ileitis with perforation caused by Angiostrongylus (Parastrongylus) costaricensis. A case study and review. Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine 121, 989991.Google Scholar