Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tzmfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T20:26:13.052Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ants as first intermediate hosts of Mesocestoides on San Miguel Island, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2024

K.A. Padgett  and
W.M. Boyce
K.A. Padgett*
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Medicine: Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8739, USA
W.M. Boyce
Affiliation:
Department of Veterinary Medicine: Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8739, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Vector-Borne Disease Section, California Department of Health Services 850 Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond, CA 94 804, USA Fax: (510) 412 6263 E-mail: kpadgett@dhs.ca.gov
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study tested the hypotheses that ants (Formicidae) function as a first intermediate host of Mesocestoides (Cestoda: Mesocestoididae) and that deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) develop metacestode infections after ingesting cysticercoid or procercoid-infected ants. Field studies were conducted at an island fox (Urocyon littoralis littoralis) breeding facility located on San Miguel Island, California Channel Islands National Park, USA, where >40% of captive foxes were infected with adult Mesocestoides. Eight percent (8%) of deer mice at the fox pen site were infected with Mesocestoides metacestodes while none were infected at a distant site where foxes were absent (campground), thereby indicating the potential localized presence of a first intermediate host. To test whether ants from San Miguel Island contained Mesocestoides DNA, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnostic assay was developed using nested primers that could detect a single hexacanth larva within pooled samples of ten ants. Ants (Lasius niger and Tapinoma sessile) collected near the fox breeding facility were tested using the nested-PCR assay. Seven of 223 pooled samples of L. niger (3.1%) and 2 of 84 pooled samples of T. sessile (2.4%) tested positive for Mesocestoides DNA, while none of the ants were positive at the campground site. Positive samples were sequenced and found to match DNA sequences from Mesocestoides obtained from island fox and deer mice. Finally, to determine whether ants function as a first intermediate host for Mesocestoides, colony-raised deer mice (n=47) were fed L. niger (n=3860) or T. sessile (n=339) collected from the San Miguel Island fox breeding facility. No mouse became infected with Mesocestoides metacestodes after ingesting ants. While both L. niger and T. sessile from SMI were positive for Mesocestoides DNA, they were not infective to deer mice in the laboratory.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 67 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bartel, B.J. (1965) The life cycle of Raillietina (R.) loweni Bartel and Hansen, 1964 (Cestoda) from the black-tailed jackrabbit, Lepus californicus melanotis Mearns. Journal of Parasitology 51, 800–806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crosbie, P.R., Boyce, W.M., Platzer, E.G., Nadler, S.A. & Kerner, C. (1998) Diagnostic procedures and treatment of eleven dogs with peritoneal infections caused by Mesocestoides spp. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 213, 1578–1583.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crosbie, P.R., Padgett, K.A. & Boyce, W.M. (2000) Mesocestoides spp. tapeworm infections in dogs in California. California Veterinarian 15–28 May/June.Google Scholar
Eckert, J., von Brand, T. & Voge, M. (1969) Asexual multiplication of Mesocestoides corti (Cestoda) in the intestine of dogs and skunks. Journal of Parasitology 55, 241–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faulkner, C.T., Patton, S., Munson, L., Johnson, E.M. & Coonan, T.J. (2001) Angiocaulus gubernaculatus in the island fox (Urocyon littoralis) from the California Channel Islands and comments on the diagnosis of Angiostrongylidae nematodes in canid and mustelid hosts. Journal of Parasitology 87, 1174–1176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, M.F. & Horsfall, M.W. (1935) Ants as intermediate hosts for two species of Raillietina parasitic in chickens. Journal of Parasitology 21, 442–443.Google Scholar
Loos-Frank, B. (1991) One or two intermediate hosts in the life cycle of Mesocestoides (Cyclophyllidea Mesocestoididae)? Parasitology Research 77, 726–728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mankau, S.K., Widmer, E.A. (1977) Prevalence of Mesocestoides (Eucestoda: Mesocestoididae) tetrathyridia in Southern California reptiles with notes on the pathology in the Crotallidae. Japanese Journal of Parasitology 26, 256–259.Google Scholar
Padgett, K.A. & Boyce, W.M. (2004) Life history studies on two molecular strains of Mesocestoides (Cestoda: Mesocestoididae): identification of sylvatic hosts and infectivity of immature life stages. Journal of Parasitology 90, 108–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pianka, E.R. & Parker, W.S. (1975) Ecology of horned lizards: a review with special reference to Phrynosoma platyrhinos. Copeia 1, 141–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rausch, R.L. (1994) Family Mesocestoididae Fuhrmann, 1907.in Khalil, L.F., Jones, A., Bray, R.A.(Eds) Keys to the cestode parasites of vertebrates, Wallingford, Oxon, CAB International.Google Scholar
Sharpilo, V.P. & Kornyushin, V.V. (1995) Locomotory activity of mature cestode proglottids in external environment and egg dissemination pattern they display. Vestnik Zoologii 4, 24–29.Google Scholar
Soldatowa, A.P. (1944) A contribution to the study of the development cycle in the cestode Mesocestoides lineatus (Goeze, 1782) parasitic in carnivorous mammals. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 45, 310–312.Google Scholar
Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Plewniak, F., Jeanmougin, F. & Higgins, D.G. (1997) The ClustalX windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Research 24, 4876–4882.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J.D. (1949) Fragmentary studies on the life history of the cestode Mesocestoides latus. Journal of Parasitology 35, 83–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wetterer, J.K., Ward, P.S., Wetterer, A.L., Longino, L.T., Trager, J.C. & Miller, S.E. (2000) Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Santa Cruz Island, California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 99, 25–31.Google Scholar