Vet World   Vol.12   February-2019  Article-10

Morphology and morphometry of adult nematodes on Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Way Kambas National Park area, Indonesia

Background and Aim: Worms from nematodes are the most numerous and the most detrimental in elephants. Most adult worms are located in the digestive tract. Nematode infection is at higher risk in young elephants, which caused several cases such as anemia, hypoalbuminemia, enteritis, and even death. This study aimed to determine the morphology and morphometry of adult nematodes on Sumatran elephants in Way Kambas National Park area.

Materials and Methods: Nematode samples were obtained from Sumatran elephants' feces (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Way Kambas National Park, Lampung Province, after being given Kalbazen® containing albendazole 1000 mg at a dose of 10 mg/kg by the veterinarian in charge of the National Park area. For the morphological and morphometric examinations, we used an Olympus BX 51 microscope equipped with Olympus DP 12 camera and were conducted at the Parasitology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis was carried out at the Biology Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia).

Results: The results of macroscopic observations of the obtained nematodes showed that the nematodes which were found have the characteristics of round, slim, and white color. The size of a female worm was larger than a male worm. Microscopic examination in four anterior papillae indicated that the dorsal lobe in the copulatory bursa was longer than lateral lobe. The result of inspection with the SEM showed a leaf crown consisting of 10 elements, a pair of amphids laterally, and two pairs of papilla in a submedian region.

Conclusion: Based on our morphology and morphometry examinations of adult nematodes in Sumatran elephant (E. maximus sumatranus) in Way Kambas National Park area, the adult nematodes which were found are species of Quilonia travancra. Keywords: morphology, morphometry, nematode, Quilonia travancra, Sumatran elephant.

Keywords: morphology, morphometry, nematode, Quilonia travancra, Sumatran elephant.

How to cite this article: Prahardani R, Firdausy LW, Yanuartono, Nurcahyo W (2019) Morphology and morphometry of adult nematodes on Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Way Kambas National Park area, Indonesia, Veterinary World, 12(2): 249-253.

Received: 22-09-2018  Accepted: 09-01-2019     Published online: 13-02-2019

Corresponding author: Wisnu Nurcahyo   E-mail: wisnu-nc@ugm.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2019.249-253

Copyright: Prahardani, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.