Abstract
In the past decade cardiopulmonary nematodes affecting felids have become a core research topic in small animal parasitology. In the late 2000s, an increase in studies was followed by unexpected findings in the early 2010s, which have stimulated research teams to start investigating these intriguing parasites. Prolific scientific debate and exchanges have then fostered field and laboratory studies and epizootiological surveys. New data have improved basic and applied knowledge, solved dilemmas and posed new questions. This article discusses the past and present background to felid cardiopulmonary nematodes after the last few years of intense scientific research. New data which have demonstrated the key role of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior in causing respiratory infections in domestic cats, and on the nil to negligible current importance of other species, i.e., Troglostrongylus subcrenatus, Oslerus rostratus and Angiostrongylus chabaudi, are presented. Biological information and hypothesized alternative routes of infection are analysed and discussed. Novel identification and taxonomical data and issues are reported and commented upon. On the whole, recent biological, ecological and epizootiological information on felid metastrongyloids is critically analysed, with the aim to answer outstanding questions, stimulate future studies, and underline new research perspectives.
Highlights
Various speculations, investigations and hypotheses were presented aiming at understanding the origin of the unexpected records of T. brevior in domestic cats in the early 2010s
A. abstrusus infections in wildlife occur under occasional epizootiological pressure, and the high prevalence in F. silvestris populations in some areas may rely on the same factors that have spurred the infections of F. catus with T. brevior [5]
Aelurostrongylus abstrusus remains the primary nematode affecting the respiratory system of domestic cats, but it can infect wild felids, especially the European wildcat, under occasional epizootiological pressure [25,26,57]
Summary
A few years ago it was suggested that F. catus is not the only proper host of the “cat lungworm” [9]. Records in wild felids from South America [50] and other reports [44,46,47,49] are questionable (Table 2). Recent morphological and genetic data have shown the unequivocal capability of A. abstrusus to infect wild felids. A. abstrusus may infect wild felids, especially European wildcats which live in sympatry with domestic cats. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of an informative mitochondrial DNA region have indicated that the same populations of A. abstrusus and T. brevior circulate in domestic and wild hosts from the same regions and among countries under the same routes of transmission [58]. A. abstrusus infections in wildlife occur under occasional epizootiological pressure, and the high prevalence in F. silvestris populations in some areas may rely on the same factors that have spurred the infections of F. catus with T. brevior [5]
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