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Larval development of Angiostrongylus chabaudi, the causative agent of feline angiostrongylosis, in the snail Cornu aspersum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2017

V. COLELLA
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Str. prov. per Casamassima km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy
M. A. CAVALERA
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Str. prov. per Casamassima km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy
G. DEAK
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Calea Mănăștur 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
V. D. TARALLO
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Str. prov. per Casamassima km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy
C. M. GHERMAN
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Calea Mănăștur 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
A. D. MIHALCA
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Calea Mănăștur 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
D. OTRANTO*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Str. prov. per Casamassima km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy
*
*Corresponding author: Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Bari, Str. prov. per Casamassima km 3, 70010 Valenzano (Bari), Italy. E-mail: domenico.otranto@uniba.it

Summary

Nematodes of the Angiostrongylidae family, such as Angiostrongylus vasorum and Angiostrongylus cantonensis, may cause potentially life-threatening diseases in several mammal species. Alongside these well-known species, Angiostrongylus chabaudi has been recently found affecting the cardiopulmonary system of domestic and wild cats from Italy, Germany, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. Nonetheless, significant gaps in the understanding of A. chabaudi epidemiology include the lack of information of species acting as intermediate host and of the morphological description of larval stages. Cornu aspersum (n = 30) land snails were infected with 100 first-stage larvae of A. chabaudi collected from a naturally infected wildcat in Romania. Larvae at different developmental stages were found in 29 out of 30 (96·7%) infected snails and a total of 282 (mean 9·8 ± 3·02 larvae per each specimen) were collected from the gastropods. Here we demonstrate that A. chabaudi develops in snails and report C. aspersum as potential intermediate host for this parasitic nematode. Findings of this study are central to understand the ecological features of feline angiostrongylosis and its epidemiology within paratenic and intermediate hosts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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