Experimental infection of chickens, ducklings and golsings with larvae of Amidostomum anseris (zeder, 1800)
Phuc, D.V.; Varga, I.
Acta Veterinaria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 25(2-3): 231-239
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-7205 PMID: 1231553 Document Number: 90511
Laboratory experiments were carried out to compare the development and pathogenic effect of A. anseris in chickens, ducklings and goslings. Experimental infection of day-old chicks failed to produce gross lesions in the gizzard. Although no larvae reached the adult stage in this abnormal host, stunted worms could be recovered for 20 days after infection. In comparison with the severe lesions resulting in death of numerous goslings, only small changes were produced by the infection in ducklings. Small proportions of larvae attained the adult stage in ducklings inoculated between the age of one day and four weeks. Inhibition of worm development in ducklings appeared in reduced establishment and body length of worms, longer pre-patency and short-lived patency of the infection, and in the presence of immature females in the worm populations. The inhibition greatly increased in aging ducklings. Larvae of A. anseris from ducklings and stored at 4 deg C for 5.5 months proved infective for both goslings and ducklings. It is suggested that the domestic duck, susceptible to A. anseris at a young age, suffers little damage from this infection, but may play some role in dissemination of the parasite for the highly susceptible common host, the goose.