Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1976 |
Authors: | W. S. Seegar, Schiller, E. L., Sladen, W. J. L., Trpis, M. |
Journal: | Science |
Volume: | 194 |
Pagination: | 739 - 741 |
Date Published: | 1976 |
Keywords: | vector |
Abstract: | The biting louse Trinoton anserinum serves as the intermediate host in the life cycle of the filarial heartworm, Sarconema eurycerca. Microfilariae, second-, and third-stage larvae were dissected from 39 of 89 lice infesting whistling swans, Cygnus columbianus columbianus, in North America and mute swans, Cygnus olor, in the Black Sea, U.S.S.R. Infective third-stage larvae obtained from lice collected from heartworm-parasitized whistling swans were injected subcutaneously into each of two hand-reared, nonparasitized mute swan cygnets. Both of these birds developed heartworm infections, one becoming microfilaremic at 14 weeks. The results of this study provide conclusive evidence that a mallophagan serves as a natural cyclodevelopmental vector of a filarial parasite. |
URL: | http://www.phthiraptera.info/sites/phthiraptera.info/files/4811.pdf |