Fasciola

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Fasciola
Big liver fluke

Big liver fluke

Systematics
Class : Flukes (Trematoda)
Subclass : Digenea
Order : Echinostomida
Subordination : Echinostomata
Family : Fasciolidae
Genre : Fasciola
Scientific name
Fasciola
Linnaeus , 1758

Fasciola (Latin for 'ribbon') is a genus of flukes . Fasciola is the type genus of the family Fasciolidae, the type specimen is the great liver fluke ( Fasciola hepatica ).

features

The body is flattened, usually leaf-like, but also oval or elongated and pointed at the rear end. The tegument is covered with small spines. An apical cone , the conical front end, is usually present and clearly recognizable, with the abdominal suction cup at its base . The cirrus pouch is anterodorsal to the abdominal suction cup and does not extend beyond it to the rear. The branched testicles in the middle region of the body are in a row and the ovary is usually on the right, below the center. The Mehlis gland is more or less in the middle. The uterus is relatively short and rosette-like.

Life cycle

The eyelash larvae , which attack freshwater snails, hatch from the eggs released in the feces . Further development takes place in the snails up to the tail larvae, which leave the snail and attach to plants and encyst there, losing their tail. Infection of the final host occurs through the ingestion of plants with adherent metacercariae .

Systematics

According to PD Olson, the genus contains four species:

F. jacksoni was introduced into the genus in 1869 by Thomas Spencer Cobbold because of the tree-like gastric canals that were also present. Molecular biological studies suggest that this species, as Fascioloides jacksoni, is more likely to be assigned to the genus Fascioloides , which also shows this structure of the digestive system.

Medical importance

The large and giant liver fluke mainly infect ruminants , but human infections also occur. While the originally European species F. hepatica is now distributed worldwide through cattle exports, F. gigantica occurs only in Africa and Asia. Both colonize the biliary tree of the liver and cause fascioliasis . It is the economically most important suction worm infection, but control measures have made it rare in Central Europe.

The final host of F. jacksoni is the Asian elephant , which also affects the liver and rarely other organs.

literature

  • David Ian Gibson, Arlene Jones, Rodney Alan Bray: Keys to the Trematoda . Volume 2, CABI Publishing Series, CABI, 2005, ISBN 9780851995878 , p. 81.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arlene Jones, David Ian Gibson: Keys to the Trematoda, Volume 2. CAB International, 2005, ISBN 978-0851995878 , p. 81.
  2. ↑ Olson, PD, Cribb, TH, Tkach, VV, Bray, RA, Littlewood, DTJ, 2003. Phylogeny and classification of the Digenea (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) 1. Int. J. Parasitol. 22, 733-755.
  3. ↑ a b P. Heneberg: Phylogenetic data suggest the reclassification of Fasciola jacksoni (Digenea: Fasciolidae) as Fascioloides jacksoni comb. nov. In: Parasitology Research. Volume 112, Number 4, April 2013, pp. 1679-1689, ISSN  1432-1955 . doi : 10.1007 / s00436-013-3326-2 . PMID 23411741 .

Web links

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