First report of Troglostrongylus brevior in a kitten in Greece

Abstract

The first case of a natural infestation with Troglostrongylus brevior in a kitten in Greece is described here. A ∼40-day-old stray cat was referred to a private veterinary clinic with signs of respiratory distress. First stage larvae of a metastrongyloid nematode were observed in the wet mount faecal preparation. Despite an anthelmintic treatment, the respiratory signs worsened and the kitten died 2 days later. The larvae in the faeces were identified morphologically and genetically as T. brevior. The present evidence suggests a vertical or direct infestation of the kitten and a severe pathogenic role of T. brevior in young cats. This report expands the recent published cases of troglostrongylosis in domestic cats to a wider geographical distribution and opens new questions on the apparent spreading of T. brevior from wild to domestic hosts.

OCCURRENCE OF LUNGWORMS IN EUROPEAN WILDCATS (FELIS SILVESTRIS SILVESTRIS) OF CENTRAL ITALY

“…in domestic hosts Traversa and Di Cesare 2013;Falsone et al 2014;Traversa 2014). After the first descriptions of T. brevior in F. s. libyca (Gerichter 1949), it was recorded only in a wildcat and a feral domestic cat from Italy (Paggi 1959) and in domestic cats from the European Islands of Ibiza, Sardinia, Sicily, and Crete (Jefferies et al 2010;Brianti et al 2012;Diakou et al 2014;Tamponi et al 2014) and in central and southern Italy Di Cesare et al 2014a;. Some studies (Beraldo et al 2014;Falsone et al 2014;Steeb et al 2014; this study) suggest that the European wildcat is the natural host of T. brevior and that spillover to domestic cats may occur in some enzootic areas.…”

First case of a natural infection in a domestic cat (Felis catus) with the canid heart worm Angiostrongylus vasorum

“…Troglostrongylus sp. was described in the twenties (Vevers, 1923) and then neglected until recently, when the rediscovery of this parasite in single European countries such as Spain (Jefferies et al, 2010), Italy (Brianti et al, 2012;, Greece (Diakou et al, 2014) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (Alic et al, 2015) was reported. The adult nematodes of the latter can be easily differentiated from A. abstrusus: Troglostrongylus sp.…”

Novel Molecular Assay for Simultaneous Identification of Neglected Lungworms and Heartworms Affecting Cats

“…In the past few years, another respiratory metastrongyloid, Troglostrongylus brevior (Metastrongyloidea, Crenosomatidae), previously described over the last century in wild felids from the Middle East, has been recorded in domestic cats from Mediterranean Europe (1,2). Recently, the almost unknown heartworm Angiostrongylus chabaudi (Metastrongyloidea, Angiostrongylidae), recorded only in the last century in wildcats until recently (3), has been found in two domestic cats from Italy (4,5).…”