MORPHOLOGY OF EGGS CRASSICAUDA SP. FROM FECES OF PACIFIC BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS GILLII)

Abstract

Initially, eggs Crassicauda sp. were found in the feces of the Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus gillii), which expands our knowledge of this nematode’s tropism, since crassicauda mainly inhabits the urogenital system or muscles. The material was volunteered from spontaneously infested 7-year-old female using a sterile disposable gastric tube Suyun (Unicorn Med) at Moskvarium. Feces were studied in the Center for Oceanography and Marine Biology laboratory (Moscow) by a direct smear method using Mikmed-5 light microscope (LOMO) and in the Laboratory for Study of Parasitic Diseases at the premises of the V.L. Yakimov Department of Parasitology of the St. Petersburg State Academy of Veterinary Medicine (St. Petersburg) using the crushed drop method and simple flotation method with Darling’s solution and further microscopy of temporary preparations in the Mikmed-6 light microscope (LOMO). Along with the morphometrically equal thickness of the multilayer egg membrane, the elongated part of the intact egg was optically inhomogeneous, which was even more noticeable in a damaged egg. Eggs with polar concavities of the inner layer and all of the layers of the membrane were found. The egg morphology indicates pliability of the polar structures of the membrane, which may be important when the larva emerges.