Habronema


Habronema

(hab'rō-nē'mă), A genus of spiruroid nematodes inhabiting the stomach of horses. The larvae develop in housefly and stable fly maggots living in manure, become infective when the fly larvae pupate, and are carried by adult flies to open wounds on horses, where they are left and cause cutaneous habronemiasis; reinfection of the horse's stomach by Habronema occurs by accidental ingestion of infected flies or from licking wounds in which infective larvae are found. [G. habros, graceful, delicate, + nēma, a thread]