Morphological study of Contracaecum rudolphii (nematoda: Anisakidae) from white pelican

A white pelican, Pelecanus onccrotalus, was imported from Tanzania and died 5 days later in Daejeon zoo in Korea. The proventriculus of bird was found to contain parasites. The taxonomic status of the nematodes was studied by morphological and morphometric analysis using light and scanning electron microscopy. Only one species Contracaecum occurred in the proventriculus with high values of infection. Morphological characters of the parasite were as follows: The worms have three lips without cuticular dentigerous ridges, and well developed interlabia. The interlabia have a triangular shape, non-bifurcated. Males possess numerous preanal papillae (69-79 pairs) arranged in single subventral rows. Paracloacal papillae were separated 5 postanal papillae and 1 larger pairs. All the characters of the above studied specimens are very similar to those of C. rudolphii complex. Accordingly, the parasites from white pelican were identified belong to the C. rudolphii complex.