BIRD PARASITES OF THE NEMATODE SUBORDERS 

 STRONGYLATA, ASCARIDATA, AND SPIRURATA 



By Eloise B. Cram 

 Of the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture 



INTRODUCTION 



The present Avork attempts to assemble under one cover the de- 

 scriptions of the species of nematodes of the suborders Strongylata, 

 Ascaridata, and Spirurata, exclusive of the Filarioidea, found in 

 birds. No such compilation has until now been made for the nema- 

 todes of these hosts, although special groups have been worked up; 

 Ransom has made a study of the nematodes parasitic in the eyes of 

 birds, and Skrjabin has recently studied the Thelaziidae of birds 

 and possibly other groups, but his papers are written in Russian and 

 the publications are not available to us at the present time. Ap- 

 proximately 50 genera, containing about 500 species, have been dealt 

 with in the present paper. Until now the descriptions of very few 

 of these have been available in English; it is hoped that the trans- 

 lation and assembling of the descriptions, many of them from ob- 

 scure and little available publications, will be of use to workers in 

 this field. 



The growing economic importance of birds furnishes an additional 

 reason for the desirability of a study of their parasites. Poultry 

 raising is of very widespread general interest in this country ; water- 

 birds, ostriches, and to some extent pheasants are of importance from 

 an economic point of view. Game birds are being imported and 

 released in the United States in increasing numbers. Some of the 

 nematode parasites of these various birds have been shown to have 

 a marked pathological effect on the host. Nodules and verrucous 

 growths are produced in chickens and pheasants, and spindle-celi 

 sarcoma of pheasants has been attributed to species of Ileterakis, 

 while nematodes of this same genus have been shown to act as vectors 

 for the organism causing blackhead in turkeys and chickens. Species 

 of Echinuria form large tumors in the gizzard of birds. It is seen 

 therefore that a knowledge of nematode parasites of birds has real 

 practical as well as scientific value, and it is hoped that a study such 



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