What are the primary host an intermediate host of a blood fluke?
Most trematodes have a complex life cycle with at least two hosts. The primary host, where the flukes sexually reproduce, is a vertebrate. The intermediate host, in which asexual reproduction occurs, is usually a snail.
What are the intermediate hosts of liver flukes?
Liver fluke can infect all grazing animals (and man) but mainly affects sheep and cattle. It is most pathogenic in sheep. Compared to other helminths, the lifecycle is complex and involves an intermediate host, the mud snail Galba (Lymnaea) truncatula and several free-living stages.
What flukes requires three hosts to complete its life cycle and what are these hosts?
Like many other parasites, these trematodes have a three host life cycle involving two intermediate hosts and one definitive host. Newly hatched worms, termed cercariae, leave the snail host to live inside fish, the second intermediate host. …
What disease is caused by Fasciola hepatica?
Fascioliasis is a parasitic infection typically caused by Fasciola hepatica, which is also known as “the common liver fluke” or “the sheep liver fluke.” A related parasite, Fasciola gigantica, also can infect people.
Why is fasciola called a Digenetic parasite?
Fasciola hepatica is called as digenetic because its life cycle is completed in two hosts (sheep and invertebrate host). It is endoparasite because it lives inside the bile passage of sheep. So the correct answer is ‘digenetic endoparasite’.
Do liver flukes have a complete digestive system?
The body of liver flukes is leaf-like and flattened. The body is covered with a tegument. They are hermaphrodites having complete sets of both male and female reproductive systems. They have simple digestive systems and primarily feed on blood.
Is fasciola an Ectoparasite?
A. Ectoparasite. Hint: Fasciola hepatica belongs to the phylum Platyhelminthes and it belongs to class Trematode, it is commonly called common liver fluke worm or sheep liver fluke, It attacks the livers of various organisms including the humans. …
What is the food of Fasciola hepatica?
Fasciola hepatica is acquired by eating aquatic vegetation on which metacercariae are attached. Upon ingestion the metacercariae are released, penetrate the gut wall, traverse the peritoneal cavity, pass through the liver capsule into the liver parenchyma and enter the bile duct.
How can Fascioliasis be prevented?
People can protect themselves by not eating raw watercress and other water plants, especially from endemic grazing areas. As always, travelers to areas with poor sanitation should avoid food and water that might be contaminated. No vaccine is available to protect people against Fasciola.
What is the habitat of liver fluke?
Liver fluke occurs in regions and areas on individual farms where watery environments, such as springs, slow-moving streams with marshy banks, irrigation channels and seepages, suit hatching of fluke eggs into swimming larvae and provide a habitat for aquatic snails.
How does Fasciola hepatica grow?
Fasciola hepatica has two stages of growing in its life cycle: the sexual stage in its adult form and the asexual in the larval or intermediate stages (Figure 3). The normal habitat of the parasite is biliary ducts and gall bladder of the definite host.
What is the life cycle of Fasciola hepatica?
Life cycle of Fasciola hepatica. Immature Fasciola eggs are discharged in the biliary ducts and in the stool (1). Eggs become embryonated in water (2), eggs release miracidia (3), which invade a suitable snail intermediate host (4), including the genera Galba, Fossaria and Pseudosuccinea.
What are symptoms of liver flukes?
Symptoms of Fluke Liver Infections At first, liver flukes may cause no symptoms, or depending on the type and severity of the infection, they may cause fever, chills, abdominal pain, liver enlargement, nausea, vomiting, and hives.