[Transmission of bovine Onchocerrca, O. gutturosa, by Culicoides (author's transl)]

Abstract

Observations made by the author lead to suspected that O. gutturosa is not transmitted by Simulia but by Culicoides: 1. S. ornatum, the vector said to transmit O. gutturosa, bites preferentially the cattle in the ventral area, but the microfilariae observed in this area pertain to O. lienalis and not O. gutturosa, of which the microfilariae are, at the opposite, located in the dorsal area. 2. Records of O. gutturosa in places where simulia are absent or nearly so, are in accordance with these observations. Experimentally, the cycle of O. gutturosa is obtained in C. nubeculosus with a high level of infestation. Thus the author concludes that O. gutturosa is transmitted by Culicoides and that the cycle, in Simulia, attributed to O. gutturosa,pertains in fact to O. lienalis.