Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:51:53.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On Flies as Intermediate Hosts of Syngamus trachea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2009

Phyllis A. Clapham
Affiliation:
Research Assistant, Institute of Agricultural Parasitology, St. Albans.

Extract

Until 1934 the life history of Syngamus trachea was usually considered to be direct though Walker in 1886 and Waite in 1920 had both tentatively suggested that earthworms play a part in the dissemination of the parasite. In that year, however, I was able to show conclusively in this laboratory that the rôle they play in transmitting the nematode is a very important one, for by means of this annelid it was possible to effect with certainty heavy infections in various birds of domestic importance. The following year it was shown also that Syngamus from starlings can easily be transmitted to chickens by earthworms: this method apparently overcomes the resistance due to a different “host strain” such as Taylor had previously encountered when he tried to infect chickens directly with material obtained from starlings. In 1938 using earthworms as vectors chickens, pheasants and partridges were easily given definite infections with various other “strains” of Syngamus. Consideration of these results made it no longer possible to ignore the importance of earthworms in the life cycle of “Gapes.”

Type
Research Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1939

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

Clapham, P. A., 1934.— “Experimental Studies on the transmission of Gapeworm (Syngamus trachea) by Earthworms.” Proc. roy. Soc. B. CXV 1829. (W.L. 16900.)Google Scholar
Clapham, P. A., 1935.—“On the experimental transmission of Syngamus trachea from starlings to chickens.J. Helminth., XIII (1), 12. (W.L. 11224b.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, J., Chitty, H. & Middleton, A. D., 1938. “The food of Partridge chicks (Perdix perdix) in Great Britain.J. Anim. Ecol., VII (2), 251265. (W.L. 11027a.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, E. L., 1935.—“Syngamus trachea. The longevity of the infective larvae in the earthworm. Slugs and snails as intermediate hosts.J. comp. Path., XLVIII (2), 149165. (W.L. 11136.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, E. L., 1938.—“An extension to the known longevity of gapeworm infection in earthworms and snails.Vet. J., XCIV (8/9), 327328. (W.L. 22518.)Google Scholar
Waite, R. H., 1920. “Earthworms—the important factor in the transmission of gapes in chickens.Maryland State Coll. Agric., Bull. No. 234.Google Scholar
Walker, H. D., 1886. “The gapeworm of Fowls (Syngamus trachealis). The earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) its original host. Also, on the prevention of the disease called the Gapes, which is caused by this parasite.Bull. Buffalo Soc. nat. Sci., V (2), 251265. (W.L. 3934.)Google Scholar