Taenia macrocystis (Diesing, 1850), its occurrence in Eastern Canada and Maine, U.S.A., and its life cycle in wild felines (Lynx rufus and L. canadensis) and hares (Lepus americanus)

Abstract

Examination of 129 bobcats (Lynx rufus) from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine and 14 lynx (Lynx canadensis) from Newfoundland revealed the presence of adult Taenia macrocystis (Diesing 1850) in 86% of the bobcats and in all the lynx. Concurrent examination of snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) showed that a high proportion of adult hares were infected with cestode larvae of the strobilocercus type. Scolices of these larvae were identical with scolices of T. macrocystis adults recovered from wild cats.Experimental infection of domestic cats with fresh larvae from hares yielded adult taeniids, within 42 days, which were identical with the adult T. macrocystis found in wild cats.Experimental infection of laboratory-reared snowshoe hares with eggs of these cestodes produced fully developed, infective strobilocercus larvae within 14 weeks, thus establishing that Lepus americanus acts as an intermediate host in the life cycle of T. macrocystis in northeastern North America.