New Entozoon from the Ostrich.

Libyostrongylus dentatus n. sp. (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae) from Ostriches in North America, with Comments on the Genera Libyostrongylus and Paralibyostrongylus

“…Additionally, L. magnus appears to have been found thus far only in the nominate subspecies, S. camelus camelus Linnaeus, in Ethiopia and possibly the Sudan. In contrast, L. douglassii was originally described from South Africa and may be endemic or more common in southern Africa in S. camelus australis Gurney (Cobbold, 1882;Thieler and Robertson, 1915). The possibility of a disjunct distribution for these species of Libyostrongylus coinciding with the contemporary subspecies of ostriches that radiated during the Pliocene and Pleistocene (see Freitag and Robinson, 1993) remains to be evaluated.…”

Mixed infection withLibyostrongylus dentatusandLibyostrongylus douglassiiinduces a heterophilic inflammatory infiltrate in the proventriculus of ostriches

“…Infection by these haematophagous nematodes may cause anaemia, weight loss, anorexia, proventriculitis, and 50% mortality in young (Reinecke, 1983) and occasionally in adult birds (Sotiraki et al, 2001). The genus contains three species, Libyostrongylus douglassii (Cobbold, 1882) Lane, 1923, Libyostrongylus dentatus Hoberg, Lloyd andOmar, 1995 andLibyostrongylus magnus Gilbert, 1937. Of these, only L. douglassii and L. dentatus have been found outside Africa (McKenna, 2005).…”

Comparative morphology of the species of Libyostrongylus and Codiostomum, parasites from ostriches, Struthio camelus, with a identification key to the species

“…Eggs arranged linearly within the ovijector (Figures 2A and 3A) 2 2a Absence of prominent esophageal teeth, or poorly developed ( Figure 3B); Females with a short ovijector with a small number of eggs inside (normally 2 eggs) ( Figure 3A), absence of a cuticular inflation at anus level ( Figure 3C). Males with a symmetric dorsal ray ( Figure 3D) and the spicules main shaft ending in a sharp tip ( Figure 3E) Libyostrongylus douglassii (Cobbold, 1882) 2b Presence of 3 prominent esophageal teeth ( Figure 2B); Females with a long ovejector, with a median number of eggs inside (Figure 2A), and presence of a cuticular inflation at anus level ( Figure 2C). Males with an asymmetrical dorsal ray ( Figure 2D) and the spicules main shaft ending in a rounded tip, with an hyaline cap ( Figure 2E) Libyostrongylus dentatus …”

“…Codiostomum struthionis (Horst, 1885) 2a Short sheath tail ( Figure 5A) Libyostrongylus douglassii (Cobbold, 1882) 2b Long sheath tail (Figures 5B, C) Libyostrongylus dentatus …”

“…In 1880, small nematodes were collected from an ostrich proventriculum in South Africa by Arthur Douglass and sent to Dr. Cobbold, who identified the worms and named the new species Strongylus douglassii in honor of their collector (COBBOLD, 1882). Later, Lane (1923) established the genus Libyostrongylus for some African Trichostrongylidae, where L. douglassii is the type species from ostriches and L. hebrenicutus Lane, 1923, as the type species for gorillas.…”