Category:Metastrongyloidea

Also known as the 'lungworms', but beware! - not all worms in the lungs are metastrongyloids!

Aeurostrongylus abstrusus - Courtesy of the Laboratory of Parasitology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine

Metastrongylus larva from pig faeces - Joaquim Castellà Veterinary Parasitology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Metastrongylus from pig faeces - Joaquim Castellà Veterinary Parasitology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Metastrongylus from pig faeces - Joaquim Castellà Veterinary Parasitology Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

General Appearance

• Bursate
• Typically, look like pieces of string (some, though, are very small)
• Each species has a predilection site at some level in the respiratory tract (e.g. trachea and bronchi, bronchioles, alveolae and parenchyma) or associated blood vessels

General Life-Cycle

• The typical life-cycle is indirect, with a molluscan intermediate host
• There are some exceptions (e.g. Metastrongylus in pigs, which use earthworms as intermediate hosts, and Filaroides in dogs, which has a direct life-cycle)
• Adult female lungworms → eggs → wafted up trachea by epithelial cilia → throat → swallowed → pass through alimentary tract
• Eggs typically hatch en route → L1 in faeces
• L1 has a wavy tail and some species also have a sub-terminal peg
• L1 eaten by mollusc intermediate host → infective L3
• If small mammals or birds eat the mollusc intermediate host, the L3 of some species (e.g. Aelurostrongylus, the cat lungworm) invade the tissues and utilise the animal as a paratenic host
• The final host is infected by ingesting an intermediate or paratenic host carrying the L3
• The L3 migrate from the intestine → mesenteric lymph nodes → blood → lungs
• Prepatent period varies between species

NOTE: the most pathogenic worms in the lungs of ruminants and equines belong to the genus Dictyocaulus. These look like typical metastrongyloid lungworms, but molecular studies have confirmed that they are related to the Trichostrongyloidea (a case of convergent evolution). This explains why their life cycle is so different from the others.

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• Metastrongylus spp. in bronchi of pigs

• Crenosoma vulpis lungworm of dogs and foxes