Setaria cervi		Contents		Rev 10/13/2025
		Classification		Biology and Ecology
		Morphology and Anatomy		Life Cycle
Return to Setaria Menu				Ecosystem Functions and Services
		Distribution		Management
Return to Onchocercidae Menu		Feeding		References
		Go to Nemaplex Main Menu		Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Chromadorea
Chromadoria

 Rhabditida 

                  Spirurina

                                  Filarioidea

                           Filariidae

Onchocercidae

 

           

Setaria cervi Rudolphi, 1819

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Morphology and Anatomy:

• Adult worms are slender; males up to 5 cm in length and 40um wide, females 10 cm long and 750 um wide, strong seual dimorphism in terms of size.
• Microfilariae, found in the blood of the host, are very small, about 200 um long.  The infective L3 larvae are about 2 mm long.

  	Reported median body size for this species (Length mm; width micrometers; weight micrograms) - Click:
  Female: Up to 10 cm long and 750 um wide
  Male: Up to 5 cm in length and 40um wide,Posteriorly attenuated and spiraled. No caudal alae but a pair of lateral cuticular appendages near the tail tip. Spicules unequal, dissimilar, and winged. Ref: Almeida et al., 1991; Dzimianski et al, 2020

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Distribution:

A parasite of cattle, bison, yak, reindeer, buffalo, moose, and sheep all over the world. It is most prevalent in Europe and Asia

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Economic Importance:

Mature Setaria cervi are primarily present in the abdominal (peritoneal) cavity, but are capable of migrating to central nervous system causing serious neurological disease.(Dzimianski et al., 2020).

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Feeding:

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Hosts:

Infects cattle, bison, yak, reindeer, buffalo, moose, and sheep all over the world. It is most prevalent in Europe and Asia

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Biology and Ecology:

  The stable fly, Haematobia stimulans is an improtant vector. Other intermediate host vectors are various species of Aedes mosquitos.

Adult nematodes are primarily present in the abdominal (peritoneal) cavity of the definive bovine host where they usually cause little damage. However, they are capable of migrating to the central nervous system and  causing serious neurological disease. Migration to the eye can cause blindness (Dzimianski et al, 2020).

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Life Cycle:

Microfilariae are ingested by insect vector when they take a blood meal from an infected host. Inside the insect gut, within 90 minutes of ingestion, the larvae shed a protective outer cuticle in a process called exsheathing. They penetrate the intestinal wall and migrate to haemocoel of the body cavity. After 48 hours they the larvaemove to fat bodies, where they develop and molt.; a second molting foccurs about 11 days after infection. The juveniles move back to the haemocoel where they become fully infective larvae. In that stage, they move to the proboscis of the insect from where they are readily released into the definitive host during feeding. Infective larvae are reconizable by the numerous tubecular projections om the tail called tubercles on the tail.

Ecophysiological Parameters:

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Ecosystem Functions and Services:

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Management:

Albendazole and other anthelminthics are effective for treatent of infected hosts..

Molecular detection methods are expanding the knowledge base of the importance of many species of  mosquitoes as vectors of filerial nematodes (Kemenesi et al., 2015).

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References:

Almeida, Andrew J.; Deobhankar, Kedar P.; Bhopale, Mahendra K.; Zaman, Viquar; Renapurkar, Dinkar M. 1991. Scanning electron microscopy of Setaria cervi adult male worms. International Journal for Parasitology 21:119-121