Revised 02/27/24
Lungworms
Protostrongylidae Leiper, 1926
Parasites of respiratory systems of ruminants, cats, dogs and leopards.
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).
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).
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.