Topic
Acanthocheilonema
About: Acanthocheilonema is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 56 publications have been published within this topic receiving 826 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: The Knott’s test enables to clearly distinguish between D. immitis, D. repens, Acanthocheilonema dracunculoides and A. reconditum in blood samples of dogs after concentration of mf with the modified Knott's technique.
Abstract: Considering the increasing importance of small animals travel medicine and the spread of filariae with zoonotic potential to non-endemic European areas, routine filarial diagnosis in dogs is becoming important. Dirofilaria immitis, D. repens, Acanthocheilonema dracunculoides and A. reconditum are the most common canine filarial nematodes presenting blood circulating microfilariae (mf) which can be differentiated to species level by the acid phosphatase activity patterns or by PCR. Available data on the size of the mf vary considerably in the literature. The aim of this study was to validate morphometric criteria for filarial identification in blood samples of dogs after concentration of mf with the modified Knott’s technique. Morphometric analysis of 10 mf from samples identified to species level by acid phosphatase activity and partially confirmed by PCR were performed with specimens from 377 dogs. The mean length and width of D. immitis mf from 60 dogs were 301.77±6.29 μm and 6.30±0.26 μm, of D. repens mf from 171 dogs 369.44±10.76 μm 8.87±0.58 μm, of A. dracunculoides mf from 133 dogs 259.43±6.69 μm and 5.09±0.47 μm and of A. reconditum mf from 13 dogs 264.83±5.47 μm and 4.63±0.52 μm. For a subset of 30 samples, morphometric analysis was repeated with identical results in two laboratories. Furthermore, the size of mf concentrated and fixed by the Knott’s technique was shown to be stable over 105 days. The Knott’s test enables to clearly distinguish between D. immitis, D. repens and Acanthocheilonema spp. However, due to the overlapping size ranges of A. dracunculoides and A. reconditum, biochemical or molecular methods are required to distinguish these two species.
155 citations
TL;DR: The authors report simple and highly specific molecular methods that identify the three most common filarial nematodes of European dogs: Dirofilaria immitis, D. repens and Acanthocheilonema (syn. Dipetalonema) reconditum.
98 citations
TL;DR: Of the three classes of glycans released from ES-62 by peptide N-glycosidase F, only the last was found to be substituted with detectable levels of phosphorylcholine, and the implications with respect to the probable glycosylation pathways operating in A. viteae are discussed.
94 citations
TL;DR: The hypothesis that this animal may be an abundant source of infection for ticks that transmit Acanthocheilonema parasites and for mosquitoes that act as vectors for dirofilarial nematodes is supported.
Abstract: Foxes (Vulpes vulpes, n = 132) killed during the hunting seasons 2005-2006 in Central Italy (Tuscany region) were examined in order to investigate the possible importance of this animal as a wild reservoir for zoonotic filariae. In each specimen adult worms of Dirofilaria immitis and hematic microfilariae were searched for. Species identification was performed by morphology, morphometry, the Barka staining technique applied to pulmonary and splenic blood smears, and, finally, by molecular diagnostics -- polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. Twenty-three subjects (17.4%) proved to be positive for filarial parasites. Infection by Acanthocheilonema was more widespread than by Dirofilaria. Briefly, 8 foxes harbored mature adults of D. immitis; two of them (25%) also had microfilariae that in one case were mixed with the microfilariae of D. repens. Twelve subjects had microfilariae of Acanthocheilonema reconditum, and 3 harbored microfilariae of A. dracunculoides. Molecular diagnostics confirmed all results. Our findings, drawn by the examination of a few microliters of blood obtained from foxes approximately <2 years of age, support the hypothesis that this animal may be an abundant source of infection for ticks that transmit Acanthocheilonema parasites and for mosquitoes that act as vectors for dirofilarial nematodes. Therefore foxes, contributing to the parasite circulation in areas where dogs usually undergo prophylactic treatment, have to be considered an important wild reservoir for filarial parasites that can be transmitted to companion animals and people.
65 citations
Journal Article•
39 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2013 | 4 |