Abstract
Lungworms of the genera Parafilaroides and Otostrongylus are responsible for parasitic bronchopneumonia, the foremost disease of eastern Atlantic common seals (EACS, Phoca vitulina vitulina) in the Dutch North Sea. Recently, there have been increased reports of lungworm cases and observations of unusually long Parafilaroides sp. adults in this location. The initial aim of this study was to confirm the identity of the Parafilaroides species infecting this population. Parafilaroides are usually small and delicate, making them difficult to extract from host tissue, and there is often difficulty accessing fresh specimens for morphological study. The large size of the Dutch worms and the accessibility of specimens from numerous animals enabled the description and measurement of many intact specimens (N = 64) from multiple host animals (N = 20). Species identity was confirmed by targeted sequencing of ribosomal and mitochondrial DNA amplicons from a subset of worms. Worm morphology was consistent with descriptions for P. gymnurus, but the mature females were 1.9-fold and 3.4-fold longer than those recovered from French EACS (P ≤ 0.001) and Canadian western Atlantic common seals (Phoca vitulina concolor; P ≤ 0.0001). They were also significantly longer than mature female P. gymnurus described from other seal species, with the exception of those from harp seals of Les Escoumins, Quebec. We suggest that intraspecific genetic differences in P. gymnurus and the environment within the host could contribute to the variation reported here. This study is the first to describe P. gymnurus using morphological and molecular methods and should serve as a reference for identification of the species.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the staff and volunteers at the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre (currently: Seal Centre Pieterburen) and The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) for their assistance with sample collection. Although the work on samples from eastern Atlantic common seals was conducted at Seal Centre Pieterburen, the conclusions and points of view elaborated in the Discussion section do not necessarily reflect the current views of the Seal Centre on this matter. We are grateful to the colleagues of the RVC and Gendika for their support with the laboratory work. We also thank Dr Lena Measures, Scientist Emeritus at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Professor Dr Carlos Hermosilla of Justus Liebig University Giessen, and Dr Edward Platzer of University of California Riverside for discussions which helped improve the manuscript. The manuscript was also improved by the suggestions of an anonymous reviewer. The RVC has assigned this manuscript the reference PPS_01960.
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The study was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Government of the Netherlands and The Royal Veterinary College (RVC), UK.
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Elson-Riggins, J.G., Gibbons, L.M., Van Liere, D.W. et al. Surprisingly long body length of the lungworm Parafilaroides gymnurus from common seals of the Dutch North Sea. Parasitol Res 119, 1803–1817 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06675-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06675-7