Dracunculus insignis, , Crichton and Beverley-Burton, 1975

Cleveland, Christopher A., Garrett, Kayla B., Cozad, Rebecca A., Williams, Brianna M., Murray, Maureen H. & Yabsley, Michael J., 2018, The wild world of Guinea Worms: A review of the genus Dracunculus in wildlife, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 7 (3), pp. 289-300 : 297

4.3. Paratenic hosts of D. insignis

Until recently, no natural infections of a paratenic host for D. insignis had been identified despite data from several experimental studies suggesting that amphibians, and possibly fish, may serve as paratenic hosts ( Fig. 1 ) ( Eberhard et al., 2016a,b; Cleveland et al., 2017). Interestingly, the first evidence suggesting that amphibians can serve as paratenic hosts came from an experimental study with D. ophidensis —one of the more poorly studied Dracunculus species ( Brackett, 1938). Several potential paratenic hosts have been experimentally evaluated for D. insignis including several species of crayfish, fish, and amphibians ( Crichton and Beverley-Burton, 1977; Eberhard and Brandt, 1995; Eberhard et al., 2016a,b; Cleveland et al., 2017).

Figures

Fig. 1. Life-cycle of Dracunculus insignis in wildlife and domestic dogs. Arrows in red represent transmission from (A) definitive hosts to intermediate hosts (Cyclopoid copepods) and (B) transmission to definitive hosts via consumption of intermediate hosts. Arrows in blue represent (C) transmission from intermediate hosts to paratenic and transport hosts (amphibains and fish) via consumption of infected copepods and (D) transmission to definitive hosts via consumption of paratenic/transport hosts. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)