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Class Trematoda: Flukes

Trematodes are endoparasitic flatworms that infect the bodies of various animal hosts including snails, fish, mammals, and humans. They have thick integuments with spines and sensory papillae that help them survive as parasites. Key representative species include the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica and blood fluke Schistosoma, both of which have complex life cycles involving intermediate snail hosts and multi-host transmission between animals and humans, causing diseases like schistosomiasis.

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139 views3 pages

Class Trematoda: Flukes

Trematodes are endoparasitic flatworms that infect the bodies of various animal hosts including snails, fish, mammals, and humans. They have thick integuments with spines and sensory papillae that help them survive as parasites. Key representative species include the liver fluke Fasciola hepatica and blood fluke Schistosoma, both of which have complex life cycles involving intermediate snail hosts and multi-host transmission between animals and humans, causing diseases like schistosomiasis.

Uploaded by

Chan Lee
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CLASS TREMATODA: FLUKES

 Endoparasites – Trematodes infect various animals such as


snails, fishes, mammals, and even humans. They parasitize
inside the body of the host
 They have a relatively thick integument with many spines and
sensory papillae
 Their bodies specialized to survive the parasitic mode of life
 Oral sucker surrounds the mouth while ventral suckers are
used for attachment
 Representative species
 Fasciola hepatica (Liver fluke)
- Common in bile ducts of sheep, goats, and cattle
causing the liver to rot
- Hermaphrodites
- Life cycle is completed in two hosts: Water snail and
humans
 Schistosoma (Blood fluke)
- Human parasites
- Cause of Schistosomiasis
- Schistosomiasis - also known as snail fever and
bilharzia, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms
called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines
may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain,
diarrhea, bloody stool, or blood in the urine.
- Intermediate host : Snails
 Clonorchis sinensis (human liver fluke)
- Human liver fluke
- Adult stage lives in bile duct
- Widely distributed in Southeast Asia
- Life cycle may include up to 3 hosts

Schistosoma sp.
1. Egg is released in the water
2. Egg would mature into Miracidium hatchling
3. Miracidium hatchling will penetrate an appropriate snail
host
4. Sporocyst will develop within the snail which would then
produce cercariae (free swimming stage of the parasite)
5. Cercariae will find another host and enter through wounds
and other possible modes of entry into the target host
6. Cercaria will go into the veins, lungs, heart, arteries, and
into the hepatic portal vessel
7. Grow inside the host and the adult worms will mate inside
and the process will be repeated as the eggs are released in
the feces

Clonorchis sp.
1. Embryonated eggs are passed in the feces
2. Feces bearing the eggs will be ingested by the intermediate
host
3. Free-swimming cercaria encyst in the skin of flesh of
freshwater fish
4. Metacercariae in flesh or skin of freshwater fish are
ingested by human host
5. The parasite will develop inside the body of the host and
can be found in the bile duct as adults
6. Process would repeat itself through the human feces,
releasing eggs into the environment

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