Goezia sp.

Tellez, Marisa & Nifong, James, 2014, Gastric nematode diversity between estuarine and inland freshwater populations of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis, daudin 1802), and the prediction of intermediate hosts, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 3 (3), pp. 227-235 : 234

4.3. Correlation of Goezia sp. and Contracaecum sp.

to prey categories

Based on our data, Goezia sp. and Contracaecum sp. were not strongly associated with alligator prey. Neither of these two nematode species has been regularly identified from the stomach of alligators ( Deardorff and Overstreet, 1979; Tellez, 2010, 2013). Both Goezia spp. and Contracaecum spp. are considered common parasites of fish-eating birds and marine mammals ( Anderson, 2000; Sprent, 1954), thus it is plausible that infection among alligators is “accidental.”