Development and survival at low temperature of the free living stages of Trichostrongylus tenuis.
To test the ability of Trichostrongylus tenuis eggs to survive and develop at temperatures similar to those they might experience in late winter on a grouse moor, they were exposed in replicate faecal cultures to various low temperature regimes in the laboratory. Yields in experimental cultures were compared with those in control cultures incubated at 21 to 23 degrees C. Eggs in caecal faeces were also placed outside on grass plots at intervals through the winter. In addition to this, infective larvae (L3), also in replicate faecal cultures, were subjected to similar low temperature regimes. The results confirm that few, if any, eggs deposited from November to January are likely to develop successfully, but increasing numbers of those deposited from February onwards are likely to do so and to give rise to L3 in May. L3 were shown to have the potential to survive the winter in significant numbers. It is suggested that infection newly acquired during the winter may represent a very significant part of the worm population found in adult birds in early summer.
University of Cambridge, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine.
R M
RM
Connan
D R
DR
Wise
D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases; D001717:Birds; D002470:Cell Survival; D005260:Female; D007814:Larva; D010063:Ovum / Q000502:physiology*; D010270:Parasite Egg Count; D013696:Temperature; D014253:Trichostrongylosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D014254:Trichostrongylus / Q000196:embryology*