Life History of the Canine Lungworm Angiostrongylus vasorum (Baillet)

Abstract

SUMMARY Angiostrongylus vasorum did not develop in the brain of its final host as does Angiostrongylus cantonensis . Rather, the 3rd and 4th molts occurred in abdominal visceral lymph nodes, and the parasites then migrated, via the liver, to the heart and pulmonary arteries where their development was completed. Angiostrongylus vasorum was found in the pulmonary arteries at 10 days after exposure, and 1st-stage larvae were found in the feces as early as 49 days. One dog continued to excrete larvae at 5 years. Partial development of A. vasorum also was observed in the lymph nodes of an exposed rat. The aquatic mollusc Biomphalaria glabrata was an excellent intermediate host for A. vasorum , and the nematode also developed to the 3rd stage in several species of terrestrial molluscs from Hawaii. Both 1st- and 3rd-stage larvae of A. vasorum , because of their greater length, could be differentiated from those of A. cantonensis .