New Host and Geographic Records for Two Protostrongylids in Dall's Sheep

Authors

Susan J. Kutz, University of SaskatchewanFollow
A. M. Veitch, Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Sahtu Region, Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada
Eric P. Hoberg, Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of AgricultureFollow
B. T. Elkin, Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, Government of the Northwest Territories, Wildlife Health Program, Wildlife and Fisheries Division, Canada
Emily J. Jenkins, University of SaskatchewanFollow
L. Polley, University of SaskatchewanFollow

Date of this Version

2001

Citation

Journal of Wildlife Diseases (2001) 37(4): 761-774.

Comments

U.S. government work.

Abstract

Biodiversity survey and inventory have resulted in new information on the distribution of Protostrongylidae in Dall’s sheep (Ovis dalli dalli) from the Northwest Territories (Northwest Territories, Canada) and from Alaska (Alaska, USA). In 1998, Parelaphostrongylus odocoilei adults were found for the first time in the skeletal muscles of Dall’s sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains (Northwest Territories). Adult P. odocoilei were associated with petechial and ecchymotic hemorrhages and localized myositis; eggs and larvae in the lungs were associated with diffuse granulomatous pneumonia. Experimental infections of the slugs Deroceras laeve and Deroceras reticulatum with dorsal-spined first-stage larvae assumed to be P. odocoilei, from ground-collected feces from Dall’s sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains, yielded third-stage larvae by at least 28 (in D. laeve) and 48 (in D. reticulatum) days post-infection. Third-stage larvae emerged from D. laeve between days 19 and 46 post-infection and emergence occurred both at room temperature and at 10 to 12 °C. Protostrongylus stilesi were definitively identified from the lungs of Dall’s sheep collected in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories in 1998. Specimens collected from sheep in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories in 1971–72, and the Alaska Range, Alaska in 1972 were also confirmed as P. stilesi. Lung pathology associated with adults, eggs, and larvae of P. stilesi was similar to that described in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Concurrent infections with P. odocoilei and P. stilesi in a single host have not been previously reported.