Biology - Life Cycle of D.

immitis

Life Cycle:

During a blood meal, an infected mosquito (Aedes , Culex , Anopheles , Mansonia ) introduces third-stage larial larvae of Dirolaria immitis into the skin of the denitive
host, which is usually a domestic dog or coyote in the United States (although a wide variety of other animals can also be infected, including felids, mustelids, pinnipeds,
beaver, horses, and humans), where they penetrate into the bite wound . In the denitive host, the L3 larvae undergo two more molts into L4 and adults. Adults reside
in pulmonary arteries, and are occasionally found in the right ventricle of the heart . Adult females are usually 230-310 mm long by 350 m wide; males are usually
120-190 mm long by 300 m wide. Adults can live for 5 - 10 years. In the heart, the female worms are capable of producing microlariae over their lifespan. The
microlariae are found in peripheral blood . A mosquito ingests the microlariae during a blood meal . After ingestion, the microlariae migrate from the mosquitos
midgut through the hemocoel to the Malpighian tubules in the abdomen . There the microlariae develop into rst-stage larvae and subsequently into third-stage
infective larvae . The third-stage infective larvae migrate to the mosquito's proboscis and can infect another denitive host when it takes a blood meal . In humans
, D. immitis larvae tend to follow the same migratory pathway as in the canine host, ending up in the lungs, where they often lodge in small-caliber vessels, causing
infarcts and typical "coin lesions" visible on radiographs.

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Page last reviewed: February 8, 2012

Page last updated: February 8, 2012
Content source: Global Health (http://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth) Division of Parasitic Diseases (/parasites/)