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General Information

COMMON NAMES: Rat Lungworm COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, naturalised; S.Cooks (RR in 1963, absent AK and MG in 1963); Land, terrestial and freshwater, parasite; adult in rats, larvae in slugs, snails & prawns SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; Disease vector, and disease cause

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P	-				-

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Angiostrongylus cantonensis
TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; NEMATODA; SECERNENTEA (=Phasmidia); Strongylida; Ancylostomatoidea; METASTRONGYLIDAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Disease vector, and disease cause. Comments: See Notes. Spreads eosinophilic meningo-encephalitis, first recorded in Rarotonga by D.D.McCarthy in 1958 [Alicata & McCarthy, 1964]

GENERAL NOTE: Adults live in the pulmonary arteries of rats, they lay eggs which hattch in the bowl and pass out in the feces as First Stage larvae. These are injested by invertebrates - slugs/snails/prawns/planarians. On Rarotonga infective larvae were found in 1963 in slugs (Deroceras laeve and Vaginalus plebius), snails (Subulina octona and Bradybaena similaris), freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium spp.), and in some land planarians. Larve develop to Third Stage larvae and are ingested by rats eating the intermediate hosts. In rats the infective larvae migrate into the brain, become adults and migrate into the pulmonary artieries. [Alicata & McCarthy, 1964] In people the worm cannot complete its life-cycle (i.e. is a paratenic host). The worms die in the brain and nervous system, and the chemicals released on their disintegration cause the eosinophilic response (white blood cell incease) in the cerebrospinal fluid. The disease, associated with severe headache, is of relatively short-duration and self-limiting with less than a 0.5% mortality - treatment is to relieve the symptoms.

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: specimens in Rattus rattus (62%), Rattus exulans (86%) and Rattus norvegicus (96%), July 1963, in Alicata & McCarthy (1964), not found in rats from Aitutaki (R.rattus 3 specimens, R.norvegicus -1, Rattus exulans 5) and Mangaia (R.rattus 2).

References:
Special Reference: Alicata, J.E. & D.D. McCarthy (1964) On the incidence and distribution of the Rat Lungworm @Angiostrongylus cantonensis@ in the Cook Islands, with observations made in New Zealand and Western Samoa, Canadian J. of Zoology 42:605-611.

Data Update History (information):
zB02

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