Oesophagostomum		Contents		Rev 10/16/2025
Noddule Worm		Classification		Biology and Ecology
		Morphology and Anatomy		Life Cycle
Return to Oesophagostomum menu				Ecosystem Functions and Services
		Distribution		Management
Return to Chabertiidae Menu		Feeding		References
		Go to Nemaplex Main Menu		Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Phylum:  Nematoda
Class:    Chromadorea

Chromadoria

Order:    Rhabditida 

Superfamily:  Strongyloidea

Family:  Chabertiidae

Subfamily: Oesophagostomatinae

Oesophagostomum Molin, 1862

Type species of the genus Oesophagostomum aculeatum

Synonyms:

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Morphology and Anatomy:

Body size range for the species of this genus in the database - Click:

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Distribution:

Species reported from  Africa, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Philippines.  Most human infection with Oesophagostomum are reported from Togo and Ghana.

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Economic Importance:

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Hosts:

Predominant hosts of species in the genus are cattle, sheep, goats, wild pigs and primates. Humans are probably accidental hosts.

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Feeding:

Food Sources and Feeding strategies for the genus Oesophagostomum

Intestinal parasites

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Life Cycle:

Animal parasites  with a direct lifecycle, no intermediate hosts.

Hust anumals pass eggs in theiir  feces. Eggs hatch to an L1 larva and probably feed as microbivores. They develop to the L2 and then molt to the infective L3 stage which reatins the L2 curticle as a sheath. Infection begins with the ingestion of material contaminated with L3 larvae. The ingested larvae pass to the large intestine,where they exsheath and penetrate the intestinal wall to form nodules and develop to adults.. Adults mate and eggs are then deposited in the feces. Females may lay around 5,000 eggs per day.

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Damage:

The formation of nodules by the nematode in the intestinal lining of the hosts is termed oesophagostomiasis.

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Management:

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References:

Marchiondo, A.A., Cruthers L.R., Reinemeyer, C.R.  2020. Nematoda, Strongyloidea. Chapter 2 in Marchiondo, Cruthers and Fourie (eds) Parasiticide Screening Vol 2. Academic Press.

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