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SUMMARY
Parasites of seals in Icelandic
waters, with special reference to
the heartworm Dipetalonema
spirocauda Leidy, 1858 and the
sucking Iouse Echinopthirius
horridus Olfers, 1916.
by
Kart Skírnisson
Institute for Experimental Pathology
University of Iceland, Keldur
P.O.Box 8540
IS-128 REYKJAVÍK
Iceland
and
Erling Ólafsson
Icelandic Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 5320
IS-125 REYKJAVÍK
Iceland
During the period October 1988 to Ja-
nuary 1990 various samples were collected
from 15 harbour seals (Phoca vitulina),
two grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and
one ringed seal (Pusa hispida) killed in
Icelandic waters. The heart, lung and in-
testines were studied for the presence of
parasites.
Three parasites, which have not been
previously recorded from Iceland, were
identified, the fourth species, a cestode
from the intestine of two harbour seals
could not be identified due to the absence
of the scolex.
The nematode Otostrongylus circumli-
tus Rudolphi, 1899 was found in the lung
of a six month old harbour seal from
Dýrafjörður, NW-Iceland.
The acanthocephalid Corynosoma se-
merme Forsell, 1904 was found in the
small intestines and colons of four har-
bour seals and one grey seal from the west
coast of Iceland.
The nematode Dipetalonema spirocau-
da Leidy, 1858, a common parasite of the
heart and pulmonary artery of harbour
seals in the northern hemisphere, was
found in three of 15 harbour seals (20%)
but the parasite burden was low with only
1 to 8 nematodes found in each seal. A re-
cent study of the life cycle of D. spirocau-
da has shown that the larval stage of this
parasite matures in the seal louse Echi-
nopthirius horridus Olfers, 1916 (Geraci et
al. 1981). There were no records of the
seal louse in the present sample. How-
ever, E. horridus had been recorded once
from Iceland when 10 lice were found on
the snout of a harbour seal pup in Breiða-
fjörður, W-Iceland in the spring of
1985.
A general description is given of the
biology, life cycle and adaptations of the
heartworm and the seal louse as well as
the damage these parasites can cause.
A list of 12 parasites until now recorded
from harbour seals, grey seals and the
four species of vagrant seals (ringed seal,
bearded seal, hooded seal and Greenland
seal) in Icelandic waters, is given in Table
1.
102