Family Protostrongylidae

Lungworms

                                 Revised 01/23/26

Classification:

Phylum Nematoda

  Class Chromadorea

    Subclass Chromadoria

Order Rhabditida

              Suborder  Rhabditina

Superfamily Metastrongyloidea

           Protostrongylidae Leiper, 1926

Parasites of respiratory systems of ruminants and carnivores, cats, dogs and leopards.

Morphology and Anatomy:

• Buccal capsule small; mouth without lips;
• bursa fully developed with large lateral lobes and prominent dorsal lobe;
• gubernaculum and telamon highly developed;
• spicules may be comples or alate
• vulva at posterior end of body
• oviparous.

Host Associations:

Reindeer, or caribou (Rangifer tarandus), are reported as cervid host species for nematodes of Protostrongylidae.

Infections of the brainworm Elaphostrongylus rangiferi are widely reported from the Palearctic  while Nearctic caribou are reported to be infected with the meningeal (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) and muscle nematodes (P. andersoni, P. odocoilei) and with a lungworm, Varestrongylus eleguneniensis.

Some cervids can be infected with species of Protostrongylus and Orthostrongylus macrotis  Various authors report O. macrotis in moose (Alces alces) in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), Columbia black-tailed deer (O. h. columbianus), and elk, or wapiti (Cervus canadensis). Protostrongylus coburni has also been found in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis). (Loginova et al., 2023).

Biology and Life Cycle:

 Life cycles direct; nematodes may be in musculature and nervous systems of hosts and undergo complex migrations around the body of the definitive host. Larval ingestion in accidental hosts may result in third-stage larval migration via the lymphatic system to the lungs  (Anderson, 2000).

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References

Anderson, R. C. 2000. Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates, Their Development and Transmission. CABI, Wallingford.

Anderson, R.C. 2009. Keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates: archival volume. https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845935726.0178

Beveridge, I., Spratt, D.M.  and Durette-Desset, M-C. 2014. Order Strongylida (Railliet and Henry, 1913). In Schmidt-Raesa, A. (ed). Handbook of Zoology: Gastroctricha, Cycloneurelia and Gnathifera. Vol 2. Nematoda. De Gruyter, Berlin

Boev, S.N. 1975).Protostrongylids. Fundamentals of nematology. Academy of sciences of the ussr, helmintological laboratory. Nauka, Moscow [English translation by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., vol 25. Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, pp 338

Loginova, O.A., Kolpashchikov, L.A. Spiridonov, S.E. 2023. First report of Orthostrongylus sp. (Nematodea: Protostrongylidae) in wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) from Taimyr, Russia: Nearctic parasites in a Palearctic host. Helminthology 122:685-689.

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