HELMINTHS
Helminths are the worms - long, slender, multicellular organisms.
Several groups are parasitic :
Nematodes - the roundworms
eg. Intestinal - roundworm (Ascaris),
hookworm, whipworm, pinworm
Filarial - young
found in blood, adults in tissue, transmitted by arthropods (eg. mosquitos)
- worms causing elephantiasis, river blindness, dog heartworm
Tissue - Trichinella
(found in muscle), Guinea worm, Rat Lungworm
Platyhelminths - the flatworms
- flat in cross-section, hemaphrodites
Cestodes (tapeworms)
- lifecycle depends on one
animal eating another - eg. beef tapeworm, pork tapeworm, fish tapeworm,
hydatids
Trematodes (flukes)
- complex lifecycle with
two or more hosts - eg. liver fluke, lung fluke, gill flukes in fish, schistosomes
(blood flukes)
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© 2004 Dr Peter Darben