2019 Volume 49 Issue 1 Pages 7-11
A red-crowned crane, Grus japonensis, chick died on August 6, 2013, in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. In the postmortem examination, 20 individual nematodes were found in the nasal cavity and anterior thoracic air sacs. The chick died from severe inflammation of the air sacs, granulomatous pneumonia, and esophageal strangulation, caused by a heavy nematode infection. The nematodes were identified as Cyathostoma (Hovorkonema) sp., based on their measurements and morphological characteristics. This is the first host record of these nematodes from G. japonensis and the first geographical record from Japan. Considering the life cycle, the chick was infected with the nematodes by ingestion of earthworms, because the chick had been given many earthworms as food from the parents.
