What is fluke infection?

A liver fluke is a parasitic worm. Infections in humans usually occur after eating contaminated raw or undercooked freshwater fish or watercress. After liver flukes have been ingested, they travel from your intestines to your bile ducts in your liver where they then live and grow.

What is the intermediate host of Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

Intermediate hosts of Dicrocoelium spp. requires a snail as a first intermediate host. Over 50 species of land snail may serve as the first intermediate host. The second intermediate host is an ant, usually in the genus Formica, although other genera may serve as a host.

How can you get a liver fluke?

People usually become infected by eating raw watercress or other water plants contaminated with immature parasite larvae. The young worms move through the intestinal wall, the abdominal cavity, and the liver tissue, into the bile ducts, where they develop into mature adult flukes that produce eggs.

What are the three hosts of the lancet fluke?

Life Cycle of the Lancet Liver Fluke

• First Intermediate Host: Terrestrial Snail (Cochlicopa lubrica in the United States).
• Second Intermediate Host: Ant (Formica fusca in the United States).
• Third Definitive Host: Cattle, Sheep, Other Grazing Mammals.

Where do flukes live in humans?

The adult (mature) flukes are found in the bile ducts and liver of infected people and animals, such as sheep and cattle. In general, fascioliasis is more common in livestock and other animals than in people. Two Fasciola species (types) infect people.

What medication kills liver flukes?

The drug praziquantel seems to kill the fluke with few side effects. For some, however, “the liver damage — caused by the worm infection — does not resolve after the worm infection has been cleared,” explains Brindley.

What is Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

Dicrocoelium dendriticum infects primarily ruminants from regions that can support both of the intermediate hosts (snails and ants of the genus Formica). The adults live in the bile ducts and in the gallbladder, laying eggs that are shed in the feces.

Who discovered Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

naturalist Wendell Krull
Much of what is presently known about Dicrocoelium dendriticum is the result of the work of the naturalist Wendell Krull. While D. dendriticum was discovered by Rudolphi in 1819 and D. hospes was discovered by Loos in 1899, the full life cycle was not known until Krull and C.R.

Can you feel liver flukes?

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. Fasciola flukes are more likely to cause these symptoms. ), itching, diarrhea, and weight loss.

What is a fluke look like?

The symmetrical body of a fluke is covered with a noncellular cuticle. Most are flattened and leaflike or ribbonlike, although some are stout and circular in cross section. Muscular suckers on the ventral (bottom) surface, hooks, and spines are used for attachment.

How big is a fluke?

Fluke can grow to a length of more than 30 inches and weigh in excess of 20 pounds, although 1 to 3 pound fish are more typical with an 8 pounder being considered large.

Do liver flukes come out in stool?

Infected animals excrete immature eggs through their stool. These eggs develop in freshwater, using snails as an immediate host to undergo several developmental stages. The snail later releases the eggs onto plants, which are ingested by grazing animals and passed on to humans, where they live to adulthood.

How does Dicrocoelium dendriticum cause disease?

The lancet fluke infection is caused by D. dendriticum in sheep, goats, deer and humans. The adult worms live in the bile duct of the host giving rise to various liver troubles. The disease is acquired by ingestion of metacercariae while snails and ants serve as the intermediate hosts in the worm’s life cycle.

What is the recommended treatment for Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

Because human infections with Dicrocoelium dendriticum are so rare, there are multiple suggestions for treatment. The standard treatment is an anthelmintic such as Praziquantel, Triclabendazole, or Mirazid.

What is Zombie snail?

This zombie is a snail. How a zombie snail is formed is truly fascinating. A parasitic worm called Leucochloridium needs a host — a host is a body a parasite can live in and take control of. For this worm, that body belongs to a snail. A zombie snail is getting taken over by a parasite.

How big is a liver fluke?

The size of the parasite ranges from 8.0 to 15.0 mm long by 1.5 to 4.0 mm wide and 1.0 mm thick (2). Humans are infected when ingesting uncooked fresh water fish infested with metacercariae. The larvae excyst in the stomach, migrate to the ampulla of Vater, ascend into the bile ducts and live there for 20-30 years.

How big do flukes get?

Adult flukes are larger (maximum 7.5 cm long and 1.2 cm wide) and of different shape compared to F. hepatica (Figure 1). Eggs are larger (maximum 190 μm long and 100 μm wide).

Can humans get pinworms?

People become infected, usually unknowingly, by swallowing (ingesting) infective pinworm eggs that are on fingers, under fingernails, or on clothing, bedding, and other contaminated objects and surfaces. Because of their small size, pinworm eggs sometimes can become airborne and ingested while breathing.

The trematode Dicrocoelium dendriticum, the lanceolate fluke or lancet fluke, is a common parasite of ruminants but humans can be accidental definitive hosts. Another species, D. hospes, is responsible for human infections in West Africa.

What are Fasciola hepaticum and Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

Dicrocoelium dendriticum and Fasciola hepaticum are both trematodes (flukes) of sheep, are distributed worldwide, and are occupants of the bile ducts of sheep as adults. Dicrocoeliosis is a rare foodborne zoonosis of the human biliary tract caused by Dicrocoelium dendriticum, commonly known as the ‘lancet fluke’ or ‘small liver fluke’.

What animal eats Dicrocoelium dendriticum?

Dicrocoelium dendriticum is found locally in many parts of the temperate world. Adult flukes that live in the bile ducts expel eggs that are infective to snails, which ingest the eggs. Later the cercariae are expelled from the snail in pulmonary exudates known as the “slime ball.” Ants ingest the slime ball,…

Where can I find Dicrocoelium?

Dicrocoelium dendriticum is found throughout Europe (former U.S.S.R., Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Turkey), the Middle East (Iran), Asia (China, Japan, Vietnam), Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone) and in North and South America and Australia.