| Angiostrongylus vasorum, a parasite of the cardiorespiratory system in canids, has a heteroxenous biological cycle in which the intermediate hosts are terrestrial and aquatic mollusks. Generally, canids become infected by ingesting the intermediate host or paratenic hosts, such as rodents and amphibians, that contain infective larvae (L3). However, there are no reports of birds as paratenic hosts of A. vasorum. To evaluate the susceptibility and viability of Gallus gallus domesticus as a paratenic host of A. vasorum, 17 Cobb chickens were randomly divided into two groups. The animals in group A were inoculated with third instar larvae of A. vasorum, and those in group B ate snails infected with A. vasorum L3. At thirty days post-infection, the chickens were killed, and the muscles and organs were placed in a pepsin-HCl solution (1% HCl (37%), 1% pepsin) for 3 hours in an oven at 40 °C to recover the L3. In group A, 1,863 L3 were recovered per chicken. In group B, 2,585 L3 were recovered. A dog that ingested organs and tissues from a chicken from group A released first instar larvae of A. vasorum in its feces 51 days after infection; the dynamics of this process were monitored for 107 days, when treatment with 25 mg fenbendazole/kg body weight was performed. The maintenance of viable L3 for thirty days and the infection of a dog indicate that Gallus gallus is a potential paratenic host for this parasite. |
