Moose are significant ecological, economical and cultural animals for the stakeholders of Alaska, USA. Thus, the impact of pathogens, like filarial nematodes, is a critical area of moose research. These vector-borne parasites, including Setaria yehi, and Rumenfilaria andersoni, can lead to severe health consequences (e.g., peritonitis). However, little is known about filarial nematode distribution, diversity and its associated life cycle with Alaskan moose hosts. Newly developed next-generation sequencing techniques offer the ability to efficiently screen multiple species of co-infecting filarial nematodes in a single sample and thus improve our ability to monitor and understand these parasites. Blood collected from wild moose in the Kenai Peninsula, AK, was screened using deep amplicon sequencing (DAS) with filarial nematode primers targeting the cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (cox1) gene. In addition, samples subjected to DAS were also screened using the Modified Knott’s Test (MKT). Setaria yehi and R. andersoni were detected by both diagnostic methods. Overall, 190 moose samples were tested via DAS, with filarioid DNA being detected in 51.58% (98/190) of these. Out of a subset of 138 samples, filarioid nematodes were found in 50.72% (n = 70) and 57.25% (79/138) via DAS and MKT, respectively. However, 18 (13.04%) co-infections were detected by DAS compared to 12 (8.70%) identified via MKT. A DAS molecular tool for surveillance has several advantages when paired with host blood collection metadata (i.e., years, season, region, host age) to better understand filarial nematode life cycle and ecology.

Parasites in the genus Onchocerca infect humans, ruminants, camels, horses, suids, and canids, with effects ranging from relatively benign to debilitating. In North America, Onchocerca cervipedis is the sole species known to infect cervids, while at least 5 Onchocerca species infect Eurasian cervids. In this study, we report the discovery of a cervid-parasitizing Onchocerca only distantly related to O. cervipedis. To reconstruct the phylogenetic history of the genus Onchocerca, we used newly acquired DNA sequence from O. cervipedis (from moose in Northwest Territories, Canada) and from the newly discovered species (from white-tailed deer in upstate New York), as well as previously published sequences. Ancestral host reconstructions suggest that host switches have been common throughout the evolutionary history of Onchocerca, and that bovid- and cervid-parasitizing species have been particularly important sources of descendant species. North America cervids might therefore serve as a source for Onchocerca invasions into new hosts. Given the high density of deer populations, the potential for zoonotic infections may also exist. Our discovery of a new Onchocerca species with relatively limited sampling suggests that the diversity of Onchocerca associated with cervids in North America may be greater than previously thought, and surveys utilizing molecules and morphology are necessary.

The northern biotype of Echinococcus granulosus occurs throughout the holarctic zones of tundra and taiga, from eastern Fennoscandia to the Bering Strait in Eurasia and in North America from arctic Alaska approximately to the northern border of the United States. The cycle of the cestode is complex in taiga at lower latitudes, because of the greater diversity of potential hosts. In the Arctic and Subarctic, however, four patterns of predator/prey relationships may be discerned. Two natural cycles involve the wolf and wild reindeer and the wolf and elk (moose), respectively. Where deer of the two species coexist, both are prey of the wolf; the interactions of the wolf and elk are here described on the basis of long-term observations made on Isle Royale (in Lake Superior near the southern limit of taiga), where only the wolf and elk serve as hosts for E. granulosus. A synanthropic cycle involving herding-dogs and domesticated reindeer caused hyperendemicity of cystic echinococcosis in arctic Eurasia, mainly in northeastern Siberia. The 4th pattern, a semi-synanthropic cycle, formerly existed in Alaska, wherein sled-dogs of the indigenous hunters became infected by consuming the lungs of wild reindeer. The sequence of changes in life-style inherent in the process of acculturation affected the occurrence of cystic echinococcosis among nomadic Iñupiat in arctic Alaska. When those people became sedentary, the environs of their early villages soon became severely contaminated by faeces of dogs, and cases of cystic echinococcosis occurred. Compared to cystic echinococcosis caused by E. granulosus adapted to synanthropic hosts (dog and domestic ungulates), the infection produced by the northern biotype is relatively benign. Nearly all diagnosed cases of cystic echinococcosis (>300) in Alaska have occurred in indigenous people; only one fatality has been recorded (in a non-indigenous person). After sled-dogs were replaced by machines, cases have become rare in Alaska. A similar effect has been observed in Fennoscandia, in the Saami and domesticated reindeer. Recent records indicate that the prevalence of cystic echinococcosis is increasing in Russia, suggesting that dogs are used there in herding.

The variable keratin appendages of the forestomach epithelium on both sides of the reticulo-omasal orifice, emerging in early summer and disappearing towards the winter in the moose Alces alces L. were studied. During the study period, droppings of the free-ranging moose were collected randomly for faecal particle size distribution analysis. The morphological distribution, size and abundance of keratin end caps was recorded in moose that had died of various causes, and it correlated with the particle size distribution observed in faeces. The fusiform keratin filter of the reticulo-omasal orifice seems to reflect the forage quality and use. It is suggested that this filter prevents the passage of non-fragmented foliage and twig fragments of excessive size during the period of rapid and non-selective intake of high-quality mature forage and it disappears before the short growing season of easily available succulent vegetation with a high nutrient content.

Intake, rumen digesta pool sizes, ruminal digestion rates, passage rates of liquid and particle pools and faecal particle-size distrubutions of grass, browse and lucerne diets were compared in ruminally fistulated moose, wapiti and cattle. For each diet, ruminal digestion rates (nylon bag technique) were similar for the three ruminants. Intakes, rumen digesta pool sizes and passage rates varied among species and higher rates were associated with passage of larger faecal particles. However, it was not possible to simply rank the three ruminants as representative grazers (cattle), browsers (moose) and mixed feeders (wapiti) since intakes, passage rates and rumen pool sizes interacted with diet and season. Contrary to expectation, digestible dry matter intakes of each species were not greatest for their respective typical diets.