Simultaneous infection by four feline lungworm species and implications for the diagnosis

Abstract

Besides Aelurostrongylus abstrusus, other parasites belonging to the superfamily Metastrongyloidea, namely Oslerus rostratus, Troglostrongylus brevior and to the family Trichuridae, i.e. Eucoleus aerophilus (syn. Capillaria aerophila), have also been reported as agents of respiratory infection in domestic cats. A case of simultaneous infection by four feline lungworm species in Sardinia is herein described. An adult female cat (Felis silvestris catus), road-killed in the southeast part of Sardinia (municipality of Villacidro, province of Cagliari), Italy, was referred to the Laboratory of Parasitology of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Sassari. At necropsy, the lungs were examined and dissected under a stereomicroscope for the presence of parasites, and first-stage larvae (L1) of broncho-pulmonary nematodes were searched for in a faecal sample using the Baermann method. Parasites collected in the lungs were morphologically identified as A. abstrusus, E. aerophilus, and O. rostratus. In addition to the above species, L1s of Troglostrongylus spp. were detected at coproscopy but no adult specimen was found in the lungs. The morphological identification was confirmed by the molecular amplification and sequencing of cox1 mitochondrial gene, 18S and ITS2 ribosomal DNA. This finding stands as the first simultaneous infection by four feline lungworm species in the same animal, and as the first report of O. rostratus and E. aerophilus in Sardinia.

Efficacy of Broadline® spot-on against Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior lungworms in naturally infected cats from Italy

“…Further studies should assess whether the occurrence of mixed infections increase the pathogenicity of feline metastrongyloids. However, there is an indication that simultaneous infections with more than one species of lungworms may worsen the severity of clinical signs (Varcasia et al, 2015).…”

Efficacy of Broadline® against Capillaria aerophila lungworm infection in cats

“…Troglostrongylus spp. and O. rostratus are rather focally distributed (Bowman et al 2002) but are currently more often diagnosed in Mediterranean Europe Traversa and Di Cesare 2014;Varcasia et al 2015).…”

Diagnostic challenges and the unwritten stories of dog and cat parasites

“…This finding remained anecdotal, until T. brevior was identified as the causative agent of severe respiratory infections in domestic cats in southern Italy and Sicily . Subsequently, this parasite species has been diagnosed in feline colonies from Sardinia, central and southern Italy (Traversa and Di Cesare, 2013;Varcasia et al, 2015) and in Greece (Diakou et al, 2014), most likely indicating that the distribution of T. brevior was broader than previously thought. Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and T. brevior are characterised by a similar biology (Otranto et al, 2013e;Brianti et al, 2014) and they share the same ecological niches and intermediate hosts (Jefferies et al, 2010;Brianti et al, 2012b;Giannelli et al, 2014a).…”