Simultaneous infection by four feline lungworm species and implications for the diagnosis.

Besides Aelurostrongylus abstrusus, other parasites
belonging to the superfamily Metastrongyloidea, namely
Oslerus rostratus, Troglostrongylus brevior and to the
family Trichuridae, i.e. Eucoleus aerophilus (syn. Capillaria
aerophila), have also been reported as agents of respiratory
infection in domestic cats. A case of simultaneous infection by
four feline lungworm species in Sardinia is herein described.
An adult female cat (Felis silvestris catus), road-killed in the
southeast part of Sardinia (municipality of Villacidro, province
of Cagliari), Italy, was referred to the Laboratory of
Parasitology of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Sassari.
At necropsy, the lungs were examined and dissected under a
stereomicroscope for the presence of parasites, and first-stage
larvae (L1) of broncho-pulmonary nematodes were searched
for in a faecal sample using the Baermann method. Parasites
collected in the lungs were morphologically identified as
A. abstrusus, E. aerophilus, and O. rostratus. In addition to
the above species, L1s of Troglostrongylus spp. were detected
at coproscopy but no adult specimen was found in the lungs.
The morphological identification was confirmed by the molecular
amplification and sequencing of cox1 mitochondrial
gene, 18S and ITS2 ribosomal DNA. This finding stands as
the first simultaneous infection by four feline lungworm species
in the same animal, and as the first report of O. rostratus
and E. aerophilus in Sardinia.