An Account of the Rumen Fluke of Cattle, Paramphistomum cotylophorum (Fischoeder 1901) and Its New Zealand Intermediate Host

Abstract

Veterinarians and Government Meat Inspectors know Paramphistomum cotylophorum is an extremely common parasite infesting the rumen and reticulum of New Zealand cattle. Adult Paramphistomum cotylophorum has been recognised so frequently in healthy cattle that little importance has been attached to Paramphistomum cotylophorum as a parasite. In the past veterinarians from Hamilton, Taumarunui, Wairoa, and Wallaceville have recognised, and in some cases recorded the rumen fluke not as P. cotylophorum but as Amphistomum conicum and more recently as Paramphistomum cervi. The aim of the present study is to establish the systematic position of the rumen fluke of cattle in this country in view of the early confusion that has existed, and to determine the intermediate host, thus establishing the life cycle of the parasite and paving the way for control measures should control be found desirable.