BOT FLY LARVAE (CEPHENEMYIA-JELLISONI) AS A CAUSE OF NEUROLOGIC SIGNSIN AN ELK

In June 1993, a yearling female elk (Cervus elaphus) near John Day, Or egon (USA) was observed twice over a four week period with signs of ne urologic disease including weakness, walking in circles with an uncoor dinated gait and disorientation. The elk was shot, and the head and ne ck were examined grossly for parasites and lesions. Thirty-five second and third instar larvae of Cephenemyia jellisoni were recovered from an encapsulated space in the nasopharyngeal area dorsal to the soft pa late. Larvae protruded into the caudodorsal end of the ventral nasal m eatus, obliterating the opening of the left eustachian tube. Larvae we re not recovered from their normal location in the retropharyngeal rec esses. Thus the effects of several Cephenemyia jellisoni larvae in an aberrant location mimicked signs observed in meningeal worm infections .