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Journal
Publications
Kutz, S. J., A. M. Veitch, E. P. Hoberg, B. T. Elkin,
E. J. Jenkins, and L. Polley. 2001. New Host and Geographic Records for
Two Protostrongylids in Dall's Sheep. Journal of Wildlife
Diseases, 37(4), 2001, pp. 761–774
ABSTRACT:
Biodiversity survey and inventory have
resulted in new information on the distribution of Protostrongylidae in
Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) from the Northwest Territories (NT, Canada)
and from Alaska (AK, USA). In 1998, Parelaphostrongylus odocoilei adults
were found for the first time in the skeletal muscles of Dall’s sheep in the
Mackenzie Mountains (NT). Adult P. odocoilei were associated with petechial
and ecchymotic hemorrhages and localized myositis; eggs and larvae in the
lungs were associated with diffuse granulomatous pneumonia. Experimental
infections of the slugs Deroceras laeve and Deroceras reticulatum with
dorsal-spined first-stage larvae assumed to be P. odocoilei, from
ground-collected feces from Dall’s sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains, yielded
third-stage larvae by at least 28 (in D. laeve) and 48 (in D. reticulatum)
days post-infection. Third-stage larvae emerged from D. laeve between days
19 and 46 post-infection and emergence occurred both at room temperature and
at 10 to 12 C. Protostrongylus stilesi were definitively identified from the
lungs of Dall’s sheep collected in the Mackenzie Mountains,
NT in 1998. Specimens collected from sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains, NT in
1971–72, and the Alaska Range, AK in 1972 were also confirmed as P. stilesi.
Lung pathology associated with adults, eggs, and larvae of P. stilesi was
similar to that described in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Concurrent
infections with P. odocoilei and P. stilesi in a single host have not been
previously reported. |
