First report of pneumonia caused by Angiostrongylus vasorum in a golden jackal

Abstract

Angiostrongylosis caused by metastrongyloid nematode Angiostrongylus vasorum is an emerging parasitic disease in Europe and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is considered as a main reservoir species for this parasite. Little is known about the role of other wild canids in the epidemiology of angiostrongylosis. The present paper provides the first description of pathomorphological lesions caused by A. vasorum in a golden jackal (Canis aureus). The paper describes a case of co-infection with A. vasorum and Dirofilaria immitis in a one-year-old female golden jackal, legally hunted near the City of Kovin, South Banat, Serbia. The postmortem examination revealed severe pneumonia, proliferative endarteritis, the presence of two adult males of D. immitis in the right atrium, and the presence of 15 adult forms of A. vasorum (11 females and 4 males) in the pulmonary arteries. Native microscopy of an impression smear of the lung tissue found numerous larvae compatible with the A. vasorum first larval stage. This paper provides the first evidence that angiostrongylosis exists in the golden jackal in Serbia and confirms that the golden jackal should be considered as a very suitable definitive host for A. vasorum. The results suggest the possibility that the golden jackal may act as reservoir species and as an important transmitter of A. vasorum larvae.

Cardiopulmonary parasitic nematodes of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Serbia

“…This is the most probable reason why, unlike the present investigations, Bjelić Čabrilo et al 2018found A. vasorum in only three individual foxes (1.8%) from Vojvodina, each of which carried a single worm. In addition to red foxes, the disease has been described in a dog (Simin et al, 2014) and in a golden jackal (Gavrilović et al, 2017) in Vojvodina province.…”

Co-infection with Angiostrongylus chabaudi and Dirofilaria immitis in a wildcat, Felis silvestris from Romania – a case report

“…are rarely reported in carnivores. Such co-infections are known only in canids in which D. immitis -Angiostrongylus vasorum co-infections were reported in domestic dogs in Portugal (Alho et al 2014) and Italy (Del Prete et al 2015;Di Cesare et al 2015), and in a golden jackal in Serbia (Gavrilović et al 2017). To our knowledge, so far there have been no reported co-infections by D. immitis and A. chabaudi in felids, a situation which we report in the current paper.…”

Are golden jackals (Canis aureus) definitive hosts forAngiostrongylus vasorum?

“…The first occurrence of A. vasorum in the golden jackal was recently reported by Takács et al (), who found only adult forms of the agent in two golden jackals in Hungary. The reproduction of A. vasorum in this wild canid species has been confirmed in a single animal in neighbouring Serbia (Gavrilović et al, ). This was an important reason for choosing the target area, aside from being a confirmed focus of vulpine angiostrongylosis (Gavrilović et al, ).…”

“…We considered that, due to the rapid large‐scale expansion of its populations in Europe (Arnold et al, ), the golden jackal ( Canis aureus ) could act as a new transmitter of A. vasorum . Although there are some indications of the involvement of this wild canid species in the epidemiology of angiostrongylosis (Gavrilović, Marinković, Todorović, & Gavrilović, ; Takács et al, ), its role is unclear. For the above reasons, the aim of the investigations was to explore the role of the golden jackal as one of the definitive hosts for A. vasorum .…”