Elaphostrongylus, Cameron, 1931

Handeland, Kjell, Davidson, Rebecca K., Viljugrein, Hildegunn, Mossing, Anders, Meisingset, Erling L., Heum, Marianne, Strand, Olav & Isaksen, Ketil, 2019, Elaphostrongylus and Dictyocaulus infections in Norwegian wild reindeer and red deer populations in relation to summer pasture altitude and climate, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 10, pp. 188-195 : 192

3.2.1. Elaphostrongylus

For reindeer, a significantly lower prevalence of infection was found in the two highest (No. 2, 14) compared to the four lowest (No. 1, 6, 19, 20) located areas (p <0.0001). When modelling the prevalence by average altitude of the populations’ main summer pasture area, instead of using geographical area as a factor, the model performed equally well according to the AICc-criteria (ΔAICc = 0.5). The general prevalence was significantly higher (p <0.001) in reindeer adults (68/ 134; 51%), compared to yearlings (7/32; 22%). This was in contrast to red deer in which the prevalence tended to be higher (p = 0.08) in yearlings (28/32; 88%) than adults (32/43; 74%). Only one red deer calf and one reindeer calf, both killed in September, shed Elaphostrongylus L 1 larvae. Two red deer from Ørsta shed small numbers of L1 morphologically compatible with Varestrongylus sagittatus .

The general intensity of Elaphostrongylus infection in reindeer was low, with median and maximum LPGs of 6 and 77, respectively. The general intensity of Elaphostrongylus infection was significantly higher in red deer compared to reindeer (p <0.001), with median and maximum LPGs of 28 and 820. Significantly higher LPGs were found in adult red deer males (p <0.001), compared to adult females and yearlings.