Publication details
Gastrointestinal Parasites of Bwindi Mountain Gorillas
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
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| Description | In recent years Gorilla Doctors have reported an increase in clinical cases of so-called chronic wasting syndrome in the Bwindi population of mountain gorillas. The condition is characterised by weight loss, poor hair condition, alopecia, lethargy, and emaciation. Postmortem findings of a few fatal cases revealed heavy worm burdens. The cause of this condition has been speculated to be related to gastrointestinal nematodes due to high numbers being recovered during necropsies, particularly of the nodule-forming genus Oesophagostomum. Severe cases are treated with deworming drugs and monitored, leading to a swift recovery in most individuals. Teams have been working together to track the occurrence of these cases and employ both field diagnostics and gross necropsy findings, in addition to molecular diagnostics, specifically high throughput sequencing to attempt to elucidate the cause and test the efficacy of the current treatment. Please join us next Tuesday as Kelly Marie Sambucci presents the team’s most recent results and explore future research challenges in the international effort to understand the helminths in the mist. |