Intermediate hosts of Protostrongylus pulmonalis (Frölich, 1802) and P. oryctolagi Baboš, 1955 under natural conditions in France

Abstract

BackgroundProtostrongylus oryctolagi and P. pulmonalis are causative agents of pulmonary protostrongyliasis in Lagomorphs in France. These nematodes need usually one intermediate host for its life cycle, a terrestrial snail. However, some studies, mainly in experimental conditions, have identified the species of snails acting as intermediate hosts.MethodsIn total, 3315 terrestrial snails and 307 slugs were collected in the field in South-Eastern France and analyzed to detect the presence of parasites. Identification of nematode parasites and snails were performed according to morphological and molecular approaches (D2 domain of the 28S rDNA for parasites; 18S and ITS-1 rDNA, COI and 16S mtDNA for snails).ResultsEighteen snails were found positive for Protostrongylids larvae. Haplotypes of the larvae corresponding to sequences of P. oryctolagi and P. pulmonalis were detected. Morphological identification of molluscs based on shell characters revealed 4 different morphotypes, and molecular results confirm the membership of these gastropods to the Hygromiidae and revealed 4 different species: Candidula gigaxii, 2 species of Cernuella sp. and Xeropicta derbentina. All infested snails were collected in wine cultures.ConclusionThis study displays the first description of intermediate hosts of P. oryctolagi and the first report of X. derbentina as natural intermediate host of P. pulmonalis.

Infection levels of protostrongylid nematodes in definitive caprine and intermediate gastropod hosts from Uzbekistan

“…Protostongyles use terrestrial gastropods as intermediate hosts in their life cycle, where development to infective third-stage larvae (L3) occurs (Kutz et al ., 2000; Jenkins et al ., 2006; Lesage et al, 2015). Curently, more than 170 species of terrestrial gastropods are known to be endemic in Uzbekistan and neighbouring territories (Pazilov & Azimov, 2003).…”

Habitat Characteristics as Potential Drivers of the Angiostrongylus daskalovi Infection in European Badger (Meles meles) Populations

“…As for snail species, Helix pomatia can act as an appropriate intermediate host for the A. vasorum. Other species such as Vallonia pulchella, V. costata and Trichia hispida (formerly Trochulus hispidus) were described in the life cycle of other metastrongylids [25,29,31,32]; thus, these species may play a role in the biology of A. daskalovi.…”

Helminth biocoenosis of Lepus europaeus meridiei (Hilzheimer, 1906) from Pianosa island, Italy

“…The environmental L1 actively penetrates the intermediate host where it mutates to the second and third larval stage (L2 and L3). The spectrum of their intermediate hosts is broad and include various genera of snails or, less frequently, slugs ( Lesage et al, 2015 ; Deplazes et al, 2016 ). L3 is the infective stage and usually survives in the snail until it is ingested by the final host, although some authors have reported that infective larvae can leave the intermediate host ( Anderson, 2000 ).…”