page_title: Parasitic flies of domestic animals
section_title: Parasitic diseases and transmitted organisms
hierarchical_section_title: Parasitic flies of domestic animals / Nematocera (suborder) / Mosquitoes (family Culicidae) / Parasitic diseases and transmitted organisms
caption_attribution_description: English: Nematode pathogen transmitted by insect to domestic animals
context_page_description: Many species of flies of the two-winged type, Order Diptera, such as mosquitoes, horse-flies, blow-flies and warble-flies, cause direct parasitic disease to domestic animals, and transmit organisms that cause diseases. These infestations and infections cause distress to companion animals, and in livestock industry the financial costs of these diseases are high. These problems occur wherever domestic animals are reared. The article is organized following the taxonomic hierarchy of these flies in the phylum Arthropoda, order Insecta. Families and genera of dipteran flies are emphasized rather than many individual species. Disease caused by the feeding activity of the flies is described here under parasitic disease. Disease caused by small pathogenic organisms that pass from the flies to domestic animals is described here under transmitted organisms; prominent examples are provided from the many species.
context_section_description: Biting stress can be severe in varied climatic regions (cold northern or tropics) or conditions of much surface water available for breeding where populations of mosquitoes can become dense. Species of genera Aedes, Anopheles and Psorophora transmit equine encephalitis viruses to horses. Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles species of mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium protozoa that cause types of malaria in birds. Culex mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus between birds and horses; they transmit Rift Valley fever virus to livestock species and humans. The nematode worm Dirofilaria immitis that causes heartworm disease in dogs is transmitted by species of Culex and Aedes. See photograph of microfilaria stage of Dirofilaria immitus in blood of dog; adult worms in dog's heart grow to several centimeters long. (Mosquitoes are of major importance as transmitters of many types of pathogenic microorganisms to humans causing diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. Plasmodium species causing malaria in humans are exclusively transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes.)
caption: Microfilaria stage of Dirofilaria immitis, heartworm, in blood of a dog (for scale the grey discs are stained red blood cells)
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