Oesophagostomum dentatum

Oesophagostomum dentatum Nodular Worm of Swine	Contents	Rev 10/17/2025
	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
Order: Rhabditida

Superfamily: Strongyloidea

Family: Chabertiidae

Subfamily Oesophagostominae

Oesophagostomum dentatum (Rudolphi, 1803) Molin, 1861

Morphology and Anatomy:

Leaf crown well-developed, external crown with 9 long triangular elements projecting ahead of the mouth; the intenal crown has 18 small elements.

Females:

11-14 mm long and 400-500 um wide with a 350 um long tapering tail
Vulva quite posterior, 360-380 um anterior to the anus
Eggs 70 x 40 um

Ref: Marchiondo et al., 2020

Males:

8-10 mm long and 200-300 um wide
Spicules 1.1-1.3 mm long
Gubernaculum 140 um long, shovel-shaped with a telamon supporting structure near the cloacal aperture.

Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:

Economic Importance:

A pathogenic parasite of the colon of swine. Heavy infections result in general unthriftiness of the host, eneritis, anemia, scours and even death (Marchiondo et al., 2020)

Lifecycle is direct, no intermediate host. Eggs are deposited in feces. The L1 is probably microbivorous in the feces and molts to the L2 and then to the ensheathed infective L3 in 3-6 days days and migrate out of the feces on to vegetation or the ground. Pigs ingest the infective larvae while feeding on contaminated plants, the larvae exsheath in the intestine and enter the mucosa of the large intestine where they remain for 6-7 days causing small nodules at the point of mucosal penetration. Larvae grow within the nodules, molt to the L4 in 4 days. The L4 migrates into the lumen of the large intestine and molt to the adults.Adults mate and females produce eggs that are passed in the feces (Marchiondo et al, 2020).

For Ecophysiological Parameters for this species, click	If species level data are not available, click for genus level parameters

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Damage:

Heavy infections result in general unthriftiness of swine host, eneritis, anemia, scours and even death (Marchiondo et al., 2020)

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Management:

Topical and injected formulations of some anthelminthics are effective in cattle (Rehbein et al., 2022).

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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.

Rehbein S., Hamel, D., Yoon, S., Johnson, C. 2022. Efficacy of eprinomectin topical solution and eprinomectin extended-release injection treatments against developing larval and adult Chabertia ovina and Oesophagostomum venulosum - two less common cattle nematode parasites. Veterinary Parasitology 312: 109837 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2022.109837

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