THE OCCURRENCE OF PARAGONIMUS WESTERMANI

                  IN THE LUNGS OF CATS IN INDIA

                                           BY

                     HAR DAYAL SRIVASTAVA, D.Sc.

                         Helminthologist (On special duty)

     Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar-Kumaun

                  (Received for publication on 25th May 1938.)

THE lung fluke of mammals— Paragonimus westermani—has long been
recognised as an important parasite of man and animals both, domestic and
feral. It is of considerable veterinary importance, and its importance from
public health point of view is even greater. The parasite was first discovered
during autopsy in the lungs of a Bengal tiger which had died in the Zoological
Gardens, Amsterdam, Holland, in September, 1877. The specimens were
sent by the Director, Westermann, to Kerbert, who named them Dist. wester -
mani. Three years later Kerbert received, through Bolau, specimens of the
same parasite recovered from the lungs of a Bengal tiger in the Zoological
Gardens at Hamburg, Germany. In 1879, Ringer found a parasite in the
lungs of a Portuguese resident of Formosa who had died of rupture of aortic
aneurysm. The material was sent to Manson who recognised it as a distomate
fluke. A year later Manson found large operculate ova in the rusty, blood-
flecked sputum of a Chinese suffering from haemoptysis, who had lived in
Northern Formosa. A few years later Yamagiwa and other Japanese workers
found mature flukes in atypical foci in the body, including the brain, where
their presence was accompanied by symptoms of Jacksonian epilepsy.

Appreciating the inadvisability of retaining this parasite in the old group
Distoma, Braun [1899] created the genus Paragonimus for it, which is assigned
to the family Troglotrematidae Odhner [1914]. In recent years the parasite
has received considerable attention at the hands of several workers. The
morphology, life-history, pathogenicity and the geographical distribution have
all been studied in detail. The definitive hosts of the parasite other
than man are pig, dog, cat, goat, cattle, tiger, panther, mink and
numerous other wild carnivores. A number of papers have been pub-
lished on the distribution of lung flukes. Recently, La Rue and Ameel
[1937] have summarised our present knowledge of the geographical
distribution of the parasite. Although this fluke has not so far been
reported from man in this country, it must be looked upon as a potential
human parasite, which awaits only a change in the diet of human beings to
assume considerable importance. Surveyor [1919] recorded an apparently

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