First stage larvae of an unknown lungworm (Protostrongylidae) were isolated in the feces of a wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) from Taimyr, Russia. Larvae were 365-366 μm long and had a tail spike lacking a dorsal spine. DNA analyses using BLAST showed that nuclear sequences obtained (LSU rDNA, 825 bp and ITS2 rDNA, 395 bp) were highly similar (99.50% and 98.88% identity, respectively) to an isolate of Orthostrongylus macrotis (GenBank: EU595592.1) from North America. It cannot be confirmed whether these larvae represent an uncharacterized species of Orthostrongylus or can be referred to O. macrotis, a species that has historically only been reported from the Nearctic. This is the first report of lungworms attributable to Protostrongylinae in R. tarandus across its vast geographic in the Holarctic.
Keywords: Nearctic species; Orthostrongylus; Palearctic host; Rangifer tarandus; Reindeer; Taimyr.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.