A Redescription of Spirofilaria fulicae-atrae (Diesing, 1861) Baylis, 1944, from the leg of the moorhen, Gallinula chloropus

Abstract

This redescription is based on specimens taken from the leg of a moorhen, Gallinula chloropus (L.), that was found alive, but paralysed, in Adwick-le-Street, Doncaster, Yorkshire. The heel joints of both legs were distended and found to be infected with nematodes. The paralysis may have been caused by debility due to blood loss as a result of injury, rather than a direct effect of the parasite because a post-mortem examination also revealed “severe bruising of the right ribs and the liver had ruptured to produce an internal haemorrhage.”