Subcutaneous merocercoids of Clistobothrium sp. in two Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus).

ABSTRACT: Fur seals represent intermediate hosts of the cestode Clistobothrium. Large sharks are definitive hosts for these parasites. Two female, 25- and 27-year-old fur seals, caught in the 1980s at the South African coast, were examined pathomorphologically. Both animals showed multifocal, up to 1 cm in diameter large cavities of the thoracic and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue containing intraluminal metacestodes of tapeworms, which were surrounded by a locally extensive, pyogranulomatous panniculitis. The metacestodes (merocercoids) of one fur seal were isolated from the subcutaneous adipose tissue and characterized morphologically and for the first time from this host by molecular techniques. The morphometric data corresponded with 'delphini'-morphotype merocercoids, but the seque

SUBMITTER: Klotz D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6032031 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature