Autochthonous Angiostrongylus cantonensis, Angiostrongylus vasorum and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus infections in native terrestrial gastropods from the Macaronesian Archipelago of Spain

Abstract

The presence of zoonotic relevant Angiostrongylus cantonensis infections has recently been reported in rat final hosts and gastropod intermediate hosts in Tenerife, Spain. However, data on A. cantonensis, Angiostrongylus vasorum and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus prevalences in endemic gastropods for other islands of the Macaronesian Archipelago are still missing. In order to fill this gap, we conducted an epidemiological study on terrestrial native slug (Plutonia lamarckii) and snail (Cornu aspersum, Theba pisana, Rumina decollata) species in 27 selected locations of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, El Hierro, Lanzarote, La Palma and Fuerteventura. Overall, 131 terrestrial gastropods were collected in winter/spring season 2018/2019 and examined for the presence of metastrongyloid lungworm larvae via artificial digestion. The current data revealed a total prevalence of 4.6% for A. vasorum, 3.8% for A. abstrusus and 0.8% for A. cantonensis. In Tenerife, three lungworm species were detected, thereby re-confirming A. cantonensis endemicity for this island. Prevalences of snails (C. aspersum) originating from El Hierro were 5% for A. abstrusus and 15% for A. vasorum, respectively, with larval burdens up to 290 larvae per specimen. This epidemiological study indicates the presence of human, canine and feline lungworm species in Macaronesia, Spain. The current data—particularly those on anthropozoonotic A. cantonensis—call for a regular large-scale monitoring on intermediate hosts, paratenic hosts and definitive hosts to prevent further spread of lungworm-related diseases in humans and animals.

Angiostrongylosis in Animals and Humans in Europe

“…A wide range of IH species have been recorded with natural or experimental infections. Virtually every species of gastropod in which experimental infection has been attempted proved to be capable IH; surveys of natural gastropod populations in Europe have found infections in a long and growing list of native species [16][17][18][19][20]. Paratenesis has been demonstrated, in that L3 larvae penetrate into the tissues of frogs [15] and chickens [21] that are fed infected gastropods, and remain infective to DHs.…”

A Molecular Survey on Neglected Gurltia paralysans and Aelurostrongylus abstrusus Infections in Domestic Cats (Felis catus) from Southern Chile

“…Conversely, A. abstrusus infections have been reported in several countries in Europe, North America, and South America [29,[32][33][34][35][36][37]. The overall occurrence of A. abstrusus in our molecular study was 19.9% (34/171), and the prevalence values between the three cities ranged from 4% to 32%.…”

“…In Colombia, studies have estimated a prevalence of 0.21% (1/121) in the Quindío, and 0.4% (2/473) in Antioquia [28]. In line with these findings, feline aelurostrongylosis has been diagnosed throughout Europe, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Denmark, England, Rumania, Austria, and Belgium, with prevalence rates between 0.3% and 50% depending on the region, lifestyle, and diagnostic methods (e.g., coprological, serological, or molecular methods) [33][34][35][36][37][51][52][53][54][55]. In the USA, prevalence rates of 2.07% in a retrospective study, 6.2% in New York, and 18.5% in Alabama have been reported in shelter and stray cats [56][57][58].…”

“…This co-infection may indicate that both metastrongyloid parasites might share the same IH or PH as postulated elsewhere [1,9]. Suitable obligate IH for A. abstrusus in South America are considered the terrestrial mollusk species Rumina decollate or the neozoan African giant snail Achatina fulica, which should be investigated for the presence of G. paralysans infective third-stage larvae (L3) in future monitoring studies on gastropod-borne lungworms, as recently performed in Colombia [29] and in the Macaronesian Archipelago of Spain [33], where feline gurltiosis has recently been documented [13]. Additionally, these new data suggest that the southern region of Chile may offer suitable biological and epidemiological conditions for the occurrence and spread of these neglected metastrongyloid feline nematodes.…”

New Insights into Gastrointestinal and Pulmonary Parasitofauna of Wild Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Harz Mountains of Germany

“…DNA obtained from two of three microscopically lungworm larvae positive samples, could be successfully amplified by nematode specific PCRs, using the primers NC1/NC2 as reported elsewhere [41]. GenBank analyses of the obtained sequence, with the accession number MZ801778, showed a 98.87 identity in the BLAST search tool with the best match MT345056, U. stenocephala, found in a wild boar, France.…”