Parasitic intestinal worms

Erik Hamburger

Well-Known Member
While I am well aware that parasitic worms are endemic in most animals I have never encountered any while doing the gralloch on deer. But than of-course we always aim to remove the entire intestinal track intact so even if there would be worms in there we'll never see them.
I neck-shot a young Roe buck, spiker, yesterday evening, (entry lower neck, exit front of chest. heart/lung) and on gralloching found that the intestines had ruptured and the contamination on the gralloch showed a few very thread-thin approx. 1" long worms crawling around. The animal seemed otherwise 100% fit and healthy.
The shot should not have ruptured the intestines but on occasions maybe the hydrostatic shock does. Or possibly a bone/bullet fragment bouncing around internally.
I am interested in any comments re. intestinal parasitic worms found in/on the gralloch, thank you.
 
Worms found in deer - Ostertagia, Trichostrongylus, Cooperia, Bunostomum, Nematodirus. Same genus as all ruminants, but they will be specific to deer.

I'm guessing it was the abomasum that ruptured, if so, the worms you saw are likely to be Ostertagia type. They are common, but unlikley to casue any damage to the host (a rule all parasites should follow). Unless the population of deer is concentrated and kept in one area, worm burdens would rarely get high enough to be a problem.
 
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