Dictyocaulus, Railliet and Henry, 1907

A. Danks, Hannah, Sobotyk, Caroline, N. Saleh, Meriam, Kulpa, Matthew, L. Luksovsky, Joe, Jones, Lee C & Verocai, Guilherme G., 2022, Opening a can of lungworms: Molecular characterization of Dictyocaulus (Nematoda: Dictyocaulidae) infecting North American bison (Bison bison), International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 18, pp. 128-134 : 132-133

4.3. Host-specificity of Dictyocaulus

Recent studies have shown that some cervid and bovid-associated Dictyocaulus may not be host-specific, especially in areas of sympatry of susceptible hosts ( Pyziel et al., 2017). For instance, through molecular characterization, D. eckerti has been reported from various cervids

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including red deer ( Cervus elaphus Linnaeus, 1758 ), Eurasian moose ( Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758)) , and roe deer ( Dama dama (Linnaeus, 1758)) ; D. capreolus in roe deer and moose ( Gibbons and Khalil, 1988; Gibbons and H¨oglund, 2002; Pyziel et al., 2017), and D. viviparus in cattle and European bison (H¨oglund et al., 2003; Pyziel, 2014). In North America, reports of Dictyocaulus in various wild ungulates were identified or assumed to be associated with D. eckerti (revised in Kutz et al., 2012). Currently, it is unknown if the North American plains bison may be infected by D. viviparus , and if the bison Dictyocaulus isolate we have characterized can infect cattle or other ungulate hosts. Further molecular screening of Dictyocaulus in different hosts, along with cross transmission studies should be conducted to further elucidate host-specificity. While it is unknown if the bison Dictyocaulus identified in our study may infect cervids, Chapin (1925) reported that D. hadweni of bison was morphologically indistinguishable from isolates from moose ( Alces americanus (Linnaeus, 1758)) and elk or wapiti ( Cervus canadensis (Erxleben, 1777)) from North America. Elucidating the host range of Dictyocaulus associated with the North American plains bison will have implications for future management practices, specifically where bison co-graze with other wild ungulates and domestic cattle.