On the species composition of the gastrointestinal nematodes of reindeers

ON THE SPECIES COMPOSITION OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL NEMATODES OF REINDEERS

A.P. Aksyonov, D.N. Kuznetsov, A.D. Reshetnikov

Abomasa and thin intestines of six domestic reindeers from mountain tundra zone, one domestic reindeer from taiga zone of Yakutia and from three domestic reindeers from Yamal tundra were studied by the method of total helminthological autopsy. The reindeers from mountain tundra zone of Yakutia were five years of age, one male and five females. There were 391 specimens (182 males and 209 females) of nematodes in male reindeer and from 54 to 322 nematodes in four female reindeers. In one of the female reindeers nematodes were not detected. Because of the big similarity of gastrointestinal nematode females the species identification was made for males only. In reindeer male 147 nematodes of O. gruehneri (and 5 specimens of the minor morph O. arctica) and 24 nematodes of T. сircumcincta (and 6 specimens of the minor morph T. trifurcata) were detected. In female reindeers O. gruehneri quantity ranged from 21 to 115 copy, in addition to that one specimen of minor morph was detected in each female. Males of T. circumcincta were registered in quantity of 1–14 copy, minor morph was found in quantity of 1-6 copy. O. arctica and T. trifurcata were detected in tundra zone of Yakutia for the first time. In a female reindeer from taiga zone of Yakutia 3258 (1300 males and 1958 females) gastrointestinal nematodes were totally detected. In this reindeer female 1052 nematodes of O. gruehneri (and 33 specimens of the minor morph O. arctica) and 152 nematodes of T. сircumcincta (and 63 specimens of the minor morph T. trifurcata) were detected. In male reindeers from Yamal from 2877 to 7098 specimens of nematodes were detected. The vast majority of the nematodes was O. gruehneri and only 1 and 2 exemplars of T. circumcincta males were registered in two reindeers. Minor morph of T. circumcincta was not found. O. gruehneri males quantity ranged from 1709 to 2755 copy, in addition to that from 19 to 122 specimens of O. arctica were detected in each reindeer.

Keywords: reindeers, Yakutia, Yamal, gastrointestinal nematodes, Ostertagia gruehneri, Ostertagia arctica, Teladorsagia circumcincta, Teladorsagia trifurcata.




© 2016 The Author(s). Published by All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fundamental and Applied Parasitology of Animals and Plants named after K.I. Skryabin.
This is an open access article under the Agreement of 02.07.2014 (Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) and the Agreement of 12.06.2014 (CABI.org / Human Sciences section).