Five vaal ribbok, culled in the Bontebok National Park during December 1979, were examined for helminth and arthropod parasites. Two nematode species, a louse and 2 tick species were recovered and there was also evidence of previous infestation by the larvae of 2 oestrid flies. The parasite burdens of the vaal ribbok are compared with those of sympatric bontebok and springbok culled at the same time.The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.University of Pretoria.
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De Klerk, B.D.

De Vos, Valerius

Horak, Ivan Gerard

The articles have been scanned in colour with a HP Scanjet 5590; 600dpi. 
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro was used to OCR the text and also for the merging and conversion to the final presentation PDF-format.Five vaal ribbok, culled in the Bontebok National Park during December 1979, were examined for helminth and arthropod parasites. Two nematode species, a louse and 2 tick species were recovered and there was also evidence of previous infestation by the larvae of 2 oestrid flies. The parasite burdens of the vaal ribbok are compared with those of sympatric bontebok and springbok culled at the same time.University of Pretoria.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

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Onderstepoort J. vet. Res., 49, 147-148 (1982) HELMINTH AND ARTHROPOD PARASITES OF VAAL RIBBOK, PELEA CAPREOLUS, IN THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE I. G. HORAK0 \ V. DE VOS<2> and B. D. DE KLERK(2) ABSTRACf . HORAK, I. G., DE yos, V. & DE KLERK, ~- D., 1982. Helminth and arthropod parasites of vaal nbbok, Pelea capreo/us, m the western Cape Provmce. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research 49, 147-148 (1982). . Five vaal ribbok, culled in the Bootebok National Park during December 1979, were examined for helminth an~ arthropod p~site_s. Teo _nematode species, a louse and 2 tick species were recovered and there was also ev1dence of prev1ous mfestatlon by the larvae of 2 oestrid flies. The parasite burdens of the vaal ribbok are compared with those of sympatric bontebok and springbok culled at the same time. INTRODUCfiON The vaal ribbok, Pelea capreolus, is known definitely only within South Africa, where it is limited to hilly country. Its northern limits in the Cape Province are the Korannaberg and Kuruman hills; in the Transvaal it occurs as far north as the Soutpansberg range but is ab-sent from the eastern lowveld, the low-lying coastal areas of Natal and the eastern Cape Province (Ansell, 1971). Despite its widespread distribution it is seldom found in large numbers in any one locality, and the approximately 200 animals in the Bontebok National Park near Swellendam in the western Cape Province probably represent one of the highest concentrations of vaal ribbok in southern Africa. Little seems to be known of the parasites of the vaal ribbok. Round (1968) lists only 3 nematodes recovered from this animal, Ledger (1980) lists a louse, and Zumpt (1965) mentions the recovery of larvae of a warble fly. None of these records reports the actual numbers of para-sites recovered. The present paper describes the total numbers of hel-minth and arthropod parasites recovered from 5 vaal rib-bok shot in the Bontebok National Park during Decem-ber 1979. Four springbok, Antidorcas marsupia/is, and 8 bontebok, Damaliscus dorcas dorcas, were shot in the park at the same time and comparisons are made between their parasite burdens and those of the vaal ribbok. MATERIALS AND METHODS The physiography of the Bontebok National Park has been described by Boomker, Horak & De Vos (198I). The endo- and ectoparasites of 4 adult and I juvenile vaal ribbok shot in this park were recovered and counted, as described by Horak, Meltzer & De Vos (1982). REsULTS The parasite burdens of the vaal ribbok, ranked by age, are summarized in Table I. ~ total o_f 10 nematode species, I species of louse and 2 tick species was recovered. In addition, the hides of 2 animals exhibited lesions of a previous infestation with the larvae of a Strobiloestrus sp., and an eye of I animal and both eyes of 2 others, including the juvenile, had been_ affected by the larvae of a Gedoelstia sp. No larvae of either of the above-mentioned flies, however, were recovered from any of the vaal ribbok. DISCUSSION The spicule lengths of the males of the Haemonchus contortus recovered ranged from 0,562 mm to 0,602 mm, measurements which considerably exceed the 01 J?epartment of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Univer-Sity of Pr~tona . Present address to which requests for reprints should be sent: T1ck Research Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140 121 National Parks Board, Private Bag X402, Skukuza 1350 Received 7 April 1982- Editor 147 spicule lengths of 0,381 mm-0,550 mm given by Gib-bons ( I979) for this worm in her review of the genus Haemonchus. This nematode preferred the vaal ribbok as host, as none of the 4 springbok culled at the same time harboured any (Horak et al., I982), and only I of the 8 bontebok culled simultaneously was infested with adult worms of this species (Horak, unpublished data, I980). The vaal ribbok harboured Longistrongylus curvi-spiculum, L. namaquensis and Nematodirus spathiger in common with the bontebok (Horak, unpublished data, 1980), and these nematodes plus Ostertagia hamata and Trichostrongylus falculatus in common with the spring-bok (Horak et al. , I982). Neither the bontebok nor the springbok harboured Paracooperioides peleae, a nema-tode only recently described from the vaal ribbok (Boomker et al., I98I). Although all the springbok and bontebok were infested with Dictyocaulus magnus, none :were recovered from the vaa,l ribbok. The recovery of L. namaquensis from vaal ribbok, springbok and bontebok in the Bontebok National Park is confirmation that this nematode, like other species of the genus, is a parasite of wild ruminants (Gibbons, I977). It also substantiates the contention of Horak et al. ( I982) that it is probably an accidental parasite of sheep, even though it was originally recovered and described from this host (Ortlepp, I963). The absence of H. contortus, L. curvispiculum, L. namaquensis, Ostertagia sp. and P. peleae and the vir-tual absence of 0. hamata in the juvenile vaal ribbok, which was estimated to be 4-5 months old, indicated that infective larvae of these species must have disappeared from the pasture by the time this animal was making extensive use of the grazing. The large proportion of 4th stage larvae of the Longistrongylus!Ostertagia-type recovered indicated that these parasites probably sur-vived in an arrested state in the host animals during the hot, dry summer period when external conditions were unfavourable for their free-living stages. Whether the same applied to N. spathiger or whether age resistance was responsible for the large proportion of 4th stage larvae present could not be determined in this survey. The louse Damalinia pelea is a specific parasite of vaal ribbok (Ledger, I980), and all the animals were infested with it. No specific identification was attempted of the imma-ture Ixodes sp. and Rhipicephalus sp. recovered. Ixodes pilosus is associated with the sourveld areas of South Africa and is found in sourveld areas all along the coast from Port Shepstone to Cape Town (Howell, Walker & Nevill, I978), while Rhipicephalus nitens has a distribu-tion limited to the south-western Cape Province (Morel, I969). It is interesting to note that, whereas Ixodes sp. accounted for the major portion and Rhipicephalus sp. the minor portion of the tick burdens of the vaal ribbok, the converse was true for the bontebok (Horak, unpub-lished data, I980). This difference was probably a re-fl_ection of the fact that within the park the vaal ribbok preferred the gravel slopes and the bontebok the plain as habitat. HELMINTH AND ARTHROPOD PARASITES OF VAAL RIBBOK IN THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE TABLE I The helminth and arthropod parasites recovered from 5 vaal ribbok culled near Swellendam in the south-western Cape Province Parasites Stage of Age and sex of animals culled and numbers of parasites recovered develop- Juvenile Species ment d' Helminths Haemonchus sp. 4th 0 H. contortus Adult 0 Longistrongylus!Ostertagia-type 4th 0 L. curvispiculum Adult 0 L. namaquensis Adult 0 0. hamata Adult 25 Ostertagia sp. Adult 0 Trichostrongylus spp. 4th 0 T. falculatus Adult 260 T. pietersi Adult 60 T. rugatus Adult 60 Nematodirus sp. 4th I 170 N. spathiger Adult 430 Paracooperioides peleae Adult Arthropods { Damalinia pelea Nymphae Adult Ixodes sp. { Larvae Nymphae I. pilosus Adult Rhipicephalus sp. Nymphae R. nitens Adult 4th = 4th stage larvae Although no Strobiloestrus sp. larvae were recovered from the vaal ribbok examined in the present survey, larvae of this genus have been recovered from vaal rib-bok in the Bontebok National Park (Horak, unpublished data, 1979). The cutaneous lesions found in 2 of the animals examined indicated that larvae of this t1y had been present at an earlier date and had probably left the antelope to pupate. All the bontebok shot at the same time as the vaal ribbok harboured larvae of a large Gedoelstia sp. in the nasal sinuses (Horak, unpublished data, 1980). First stage larvae of t1ies of this genus can cause severe ocular lesions when deposited in the eyes of abnormal hosts (Basson, 1962). It is assumed that these larvae were the cause of the eye lesions seen in the vaal ribbok, even though no t1y larvae were recovered from the eyes or other organs of these animals. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We wish to thank the National Parks Board for placing the vaal ribbok at our disposal and Mr P. C. Pie terse and his staff for their assistance with the necropsies. This research was funded by the University of Pretoria and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. REFERENCES ANSELL, W. F. H., 1971. Order Artiodactyla. 84 pp.ln: MEESTER, J. & SETZER, H. W. The mammals of Africa: an identification manual. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. BAS.SON, P. A., 1962. Studies on specific oculo-vascular myiasis (ui~uloog). III. Symptomatology, pathology, aetiology and epi-zootiology. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 29, 211-240. 0 83 83 0 0 3 0 19 Young adult Mature Mature Mature 'i' d' d' 'i' 50 0 25 75 25 126 !50 I 175 778 793 3 424 3 406 50 122 9 58 0 15 0 100 108 632 615 936 0 50 56 50 0 25 0 0 0 601 800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 035 2 390 625 12 790 0 0 0 3 270 195 675 960 2 ()()() 0 12 0 6 4 38 8 14 56 76 8 6 8 18 4 10 38 114 24 29 0 4 8 2 6 3 2 22 BOOMKER, J., HORAK, I. G. & DEVOS, V., 1981. Paracoope-rioides peleae gen. et sp. n. (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae) from the vaal ribbok, Pelea capreolus (Forster, 1790). Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 48, 169--174. GIBBONS, LYNDA M., 1977. Revision of the genera Longistrongy-lus Le Roux 1931, Kobusinema Ortlepp, 1963 and Bigalkenema Ortlepp, 1963 (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae). Journal of Helmin-thology, 51 , 41-62. GIBBONS, LYNDA M., 1979. Revision of the genus Haemonchus Cobb, 1898 (Nematoda: Trichostrongylidae). Systematic Parasito-logy, I, 3-24. HORAK, I. G., MELTZER, D. G. A. & DEVOS, V., 1982. Hel-minth and arthropod parasites of springbok, Antidorcas marsupia/is, in the Transvaal and western Cape Province. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, 49, 7-10. HOWELL, C. J., WALKER, JANE B. & NEVILL, E. M. , 1978. Ticks, mites and insects infesting domestic animals in South Africa. Part I. Descriptions and biology. Science Bulletin, Department of Agricultural Technical Services, Republic of South Africa. No. 393. LEDGER, J. A., 1980. The arthropod parasites of vertebrates in Africa south of the Sahara. Vol. IV. Phthiraptera (Insecta). Publication No. 56 of the South African Institute for Medical Research, Johannes-burg. MOREL, P. C., 1969. Contribution ida connaissance de Ia distribution des tiques (Acariens, Ixodidae et Amblyomrnidae) en Afrique ethio-pi~nne continentale. Annexe cartographique, cartes 1-62. Institut d'Elevage et de Medecine Veterinaire des Pays Tropicaux, Maisons-Alfort. ORTLEPP, R. J ., 1963. Bigalkenema namaquensis, gen. and sp. nov., a trichostrongylid worm from sheep. Onderstepoort Journal of Vet-erinary Research, 30, 119--123. ROUND, M. C., 1968. Checklist of the helminth parasites of African mammals of the orders Carnivora, Tubulidentata, Proboscidea, Hy-racoidea, Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla. Technical Communica-tion of the Commonwealth Bureau of Helminthology, 38, 252, vi pp. ZUMPT, F., 1965. Myiasis in man and animals in the Old World. London: Butterworths. Printed by and obtainable from the Government Printer, Bosman Street, Private Bag X85, Pretoria, 0001 148 

Helminth and arthropod parasites of vaal ribbok, Pelea capreolus, in the western Cape Province

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Helminth and arthropod parasites of vaal ribbok, Pelea capreolus, in the western Cape Province

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