Oesophagostomum quadrispinulatum

Oesophagostomum quadrispinulatum 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
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Classification

Phylum: Nematoda
Class: Chromadorea
Order: Rhabditida

Superfamily: Strongyloidea

Family: Chabertiidae

Subfamily Oesophagostominae

Oesophagostomum quadrispinulatum (Marcone, 1901) Alicata, 1930

Morphology and Anatomy:

Buccal capsule has sides that diverge posteriorly.
Esophagus vase-shaped, swollen at anterior end.
Otherwise morphologically similar to O. dentatum.

Females:

11-14 mm long and 400-500 um wide with a 450 um long, tapering, slender tail
Vulva quite posterior, 380-460 um anterior to the anus

Ref: Marchiondo et al., 2020

Males:

8-10 mm long and 200-300 um wide
Spicules 910-950 um 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 parasite of the colon of swine (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 5-7 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 cause small nodules at the point of mucosal penetration. Larvae grow within the nodules, molt to the L4 which molts to the agult stage and migrates into the lumen of the large intestine. Adults mate and females produce eggs that are passed in the feces. The prepatent period is 50-53 days (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 (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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