Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-03T02:57:30.353Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The course of infection and egg production of Polymorphus minutus (Acanthocephala) in domestic ducks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

D. W. T. Crompton  and
P. J. Whitfield
D. W. T. Crompton
Affiliation:
The Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge
P. J. Whitfield
Affiliation:
The Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Laboratory infections of Polymorphus minutus in domestic ducks have been studied, and the parasites have been found to move posteriorly for a distance of about 4% of the host's intestinal length during the course of the infection.

No evidence has been found for male and female worms having different attachment zones.

Worms which had become attached anterior to a position 60% along the intestinal length were considered to be more likely to move or be expelled from the host before other worms in the population.

Growth of male and female worms was studied by weight measurements. The growth rates of worms of both sexes are similar during the first week of the infection, but by the third week the weight of female worms is more than twice that of male worms.

Mature eggs were first found in the host's faeces from 22 to 25 days after the beginning of the infection. Egg release continued for a variable period depending on the number of female worms present in the host.

The average peak rates of egg production were 1700, 2000 and 700 eggs/day/ worm for the three cases studied.

Eggs were estimated to remain for 50–100 min in the duck's intestine after being released by the worms but before being passed out of the host.

The introduction of a Perspex cannula into the small intestine of a domestic duck does not disturb the environment of P. minutus.

We are most grateful to Dr R. C. Campbell, School of Agriculture, University of Cambridge, for all his help and advice about the statistical analysis employed in this work, to Mr J. A. F. Fozzard, Department of Anatomy, for taking the radiograph, to Dr P. Tate for helpful discussions, and to the S.R.C. for a grant for P.J.W.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , February 1968 , pp. 231 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Awachie, J. B. E. (1966). Thedevelopment and life history of Echinorhynchus truttae Schrank, 1788 (Acanthocephala). J. Helminth. 40, 11–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bezubik, B. (1957). Studies on Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782)—syn. Polymorphus magnus Skrjabin, 1913. Acta parasit. pol. 5, 1–8.Google Scholar
Burlingame, P. L. & Chandler, A. C. (1941). Host-parasite relations in Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala) in albino rats, and the environment nature of resistance to single and superimposed infections with this parasite. Am. J. Hyg. 33, 1–21.Google Scholar
Chubb, J. C., Awachie, J. B. E. & Kennedy, C. R. (1964). Evidence for a dynamic equilibrium in the incidence of Cestoda and Acanthocephala in the intestines of fresh-water fish. Nature, Lond. 203, 986–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, D. W. T. (1963). Morphological and histochemical observations on Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782), with special reference to the body wall. Parasitology 53, 663–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crompton, D. W. T. & Harrison, J. H. (1965). Observations on Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782) (Acanthocephala) from a wildfowl reserve in Kent. Parasitology 55, 345–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crompton, D. W. T., Shrimpton, D. H. & Silver, I. A. (1965). Measurements of the oxygen tension in the lumen of the small intestine of the domestic duck. J. exp. Biol. 43, 473–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crompton, D. W. T. & Whitfield, P. J. (1968). A hypothesis to account for the anterior migrations of adult Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala) in the intestine of rats. Parasitology 58, 227–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greef, R. (1864). Untersuchungen über den Bau und die Naturgeschichte von Echino-rhynchus miliarius Zenker (E. polymorphus). Arch. Naturgesch. 30, 98–140.Google Scholar
Holmes, J. C. (1961). Effects of concurrent infections on Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). I. General effects and comparison with crowding. J. Parasit. 47, 209–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, J. C. (1962). Effects of concurrent infections on Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). II. Effects on growth. J. Parasit. 48, 87–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hynes, H. B. N. & Nicholas, W. L. (1963). The importance of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus as a parasite of domestic ducks in the United Kingdom. J. Helminth. 37, 185–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholas, W. L. & Grigg, H. (1965). The in vitro culture of Moniliformis dubius (Acanthocephala). Expl Parasit. 16, 332–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nicholas, W. L. & Hynes, H. B. N. (1958). Studies on Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782) (Acanthocephala) as a parasite of the domestic duck. Ann. trop. Med. Parasit. 52, 36–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petrochenko, V. I. (1958). Acanthocephala of Domestic and Wild Animals. II. (In Russian.) Moskva: Akad. Nauk. S.S.S.R.Google Scholar
Romanovski, A. B. (1964). The life-cycle of Polymorphus minutus. (In Russian.) Veterinariya 42, (12), 40–1.Google Scholar