Syphacia		Contents		Rev 11/13/2024
Rodent Pinworms		Classification		Hosts
		Morphology and Anatomy		Life Cycle
Return to Syphacia Menu		Economic Importance		Damage
		Distribution		Management
Return to Oxyuridae Menu		Feeding		References
		Nemaplex Home Page		Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Chromadorea
Chromadoria

           Rhabditida 

                       Spirurina

                          Oxyuroidea

                   Oxyuridae

Syphacinae

 

            Syphacia Seurat, 1916

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Morphology and Anatomy:

General characteristics of the genus:

• Small nematodes; generally between 1 and 5 mm long
• Cuticle with fine transverse striations;
• Cephalic vesicle well developed,
• Mouth opening triradiate, surrounded by 3 protruded lips, dorsal lip smaller than subventrals
• Submedian papillae and amphid at each lateral side of cephalic plate;
• Cervical alae absent;
• Esophagus club-shaped with posterior bulb with valvular apparatus.
• Excretory pore posterior to esophago�-intestinal junction
• Male with ventral cuticular swellings - mamelons

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Distribution:

Detected commonly and routinely in facilities using rodents as test organisms.

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Economic Importance:

Nematodes of the genius Syphacia have been used as test organisms in chemotherapeutic studies on enterobiasis (Hussey, 1957). They incite specific immune responses

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Feeding:

Intestinal parasites

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Hosts:

Syphacia obvelata is the common pinworm parasite of mouse.

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Life Cycle:

Life cycle direct without requiring intermediate hosts. The life cycle is in the range of 7 to 8 days.

There are three probable modes of infection of the host: 1) direct ingestion of the eggs; 2) ingestion of food or water contaminated with the eggs; and, less likely,  3) retroinfection . Eggs depsoited in the environmane are believed to reamin viable for 4 wewks (Meade and Watson, 2014.

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Damage:

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Management:

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References:

Dewi, K., Hasegawa, H., Fitriana, Y,S., Asakawa, M. 2015. Syphacia (Syphacia) maxomyos sp. n. (Nematoda: Oxyuridae) from Maxomys spp. (Rodentia: Muridae) from Sulawesi and Sumatra, Indonesia. ; J. Vet. Med. Sci. 77:1217-1222.

Hussey, K.L. 1957. Syphacia muris vs. S. obvelata in Laboratory Rats and Mice. J. Parasitology 43:555-559.

Meade, T., Watson, J. 2014. Characterization of Rat Pinworm (Syphacia muris) Epidemiology as a Means to Increase Detection and Elimination. J. Amer. Soc. Lab. Anim. Sci 53:661-667.

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Copyright  1999 by Howard Ferris.
Revised: November 13, 2024.