Cyathospirura seurati Gibbs, 1957
ETYMOLOGY: Cyatho = cup shaped + spirura = speiroieides (spiral) and dayuridis referring to the dasyurid marsupials from which these worms have been collected.
SYNONYMS: Cyathospirura dasyuridis Mawson, 1968.
HISTORY: Gibbs (1957) first described this from a fennec fox in Egypt. Mawson (1968) described a new species, Cyathospiruradasyuridis, from dasyurid marsupials (Dasyurops maculatus and Dasyurus quoll) of Australia and Tasmania. In 1993, Hasegawa et al. after comparing specimens of Cyathospirura collected from rodents in Okinawa placed Cyathospiruradasyurids in synonymy with Cythospiruraseurati. Seurat (1913) described a new species Habronemachevreuxi from a cat, Felisocreata, from Algeria that was red in color and found free within the stomach. The worm was transferred to the genus Cytathospirura by Baylis (1934) It has since been reported from Tunisia, centraal Africa, and North America (Pence et al., 1978). Chabuad (1959) confirmed the sparate identity of Cyathospirurachevrauxi, but the distinguishing characters were mainly the host and the different geographical locations. In light of the work by Hasegawa et al. (1993), this may need to be reconsidered.
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION: Reported from cats in Australia and Tasmania (Coman 1972, Coman et al., 1981), Gregory and Munday (1976). Has been reported from the fennec fox in Egypt (Gibbs, 1957) and from foxes in Australia (Coman, 1973). It has also been described from Rattus rattus in Southern Europe, North Africa, and Japan (Quenta and Wertheim, 1975, Hasegawa et al., 1993).
LOCATION IN HOST: The worms are found in the stomach of their host. As noted originally by Seurat (1913) and later by Coman et al. (1981). Thus, in cats in Australia, Cyathospiruraseurati was typically found free in the lumen while Cylicospirurafelineus was found in tumors in the mucosa. Pence et al. (1978) noticed in bobcats that Cyathospirurachevrauxi was typically free in the lumen while the Cyclicospirurafelineus that were present caused tumors in the mucosa.
PARASITE IDENTIFICATION: These are red worms found free in the lumen of the stomach (although sometimes in the tumors formed by Cylicospiruruafelineus if also present). The worms are about 6 to 12 mm long. The worms in this genera differ from those of Cyclicospirura and Spirocerca in that the buccal cavity ahs one dosal and one ventral lobe and contains 8 teeth. The vulva is located near midbody. The eggs are small, clear, thick-shelled and contain an coiled embryo. The eggs are 33 to 35 μm long and 18 to 20 μm wide.
LIFE CYCLE: Gupta and Pande (1981) reported on the experimental infection of dogs with spirurid larvae recovered from wall lizards, Hemidactylusflaviviridis. Worms were recovered from the dogs 16 to 24 days after infection. These worms were described as a new species Cyathospirurachabaudi which was considered morphologically similar to Cyathospiruruaseurati.
CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND PATHOGENESIS: There have been no descriptions of the pathologic manifestations of this parasite. Pence et al (1978) felt that Cyathospirurachevreuxi was minly a lumen dweller. Gupta and Pande (1981) found that in the experimentally infected puppies that Cyathospirurachabaudi was found in the deep in the mucosa and submucosa.
TREATMENT: None has been reported.
EPIZOOTIOLOGY: Very little is know about he intermediate hosts of this group of worms. It would be suspected that the first intermediate host would be an arthropod. It is suspected that paratenic hosts are involved in the life cycle and that cats would become infected by eeither eating lizards or some other such host.
HAZARDS TO OTHER ANIMALS: There would be no direct infection of animals housed with infected cats.
HAZARD TO HUMANS: None would be likely.
CONTROL/PREVENTION: Cats should be prevented from hunting.
REFERENCES:
Baylis HA. 1934. On a collection of cestodes and nematodes from small mammals in Taganyika Territory. Ann Mag Nat Hist 10:338-353.
Chabaud AG. 1959. Sur la systematique des nematodes proches de Spirocercalupi (Rud., 1809). Parassitologia 1:129-135.
Coman BJ. 1972. A survey of the gastro-intestinal parasites of the feral cat in Victoria. Aust Vet J 48:133-136.
Coman BJ. 1973. Helminth parasites of the fox (Vulpes vulpes) in Victoria. Aust Vet J 49:378-384.
Coman BJ, Jones EH, Driesen MA. 1981. Helminth parasites and arthropods of feral cats. Aust Vet J 57: 324-327.
Gibbs HC. 1957. Helminth parasites of reptiles, birds and mammals in Egypt. III. Cyathospirura seurati sp. nov. from Fennecus zerda. Can J Zool 35:201-205.
Gregory GC, Munday BL. 1976. Internal parasites of feral cats from the Tasmanian Midlands and King Island. Aust Vet J 52:317-320.
Gupta VP, Opande BP. 1981. Cyathospirurachabaudi n. sp. from pups infected with re-encapsulated larvae from a paratenic host. Ind J Anim Sci. 51:526-534.
Hasegawa H, Arai S, Shiraishi S. 1993. Nematodes collected from rodents on Uotsuri Island, Okinawa, Japan. J Helminthol Soc Wash 60:39-47.
Quentin JC, Werthem G. 1975. Helminths d’oiseaux et de Mammifères d’Israël. V. Spirurides nouveauz ou peu connus. Ann Parasitol 50:63-85.
Mawson PM. 1968. Two species of Nematoda (Spirurida: Spiruridae) from Australian dasyurids. Parasitology 58:75-78.
Ryan GE. 1976. Gastro-intestinal parasites of feral cats in New South Wales. Aust Vet J. 52:224-227.