By Bilal Karsifi

4 DEADLY PARASITES

4 DEADLY PARASITES

Larva of a botfly Leishmania Lancet Liver fluke(Dicrocoelium

dendriticum) The Japanese lung fluke

(Paragonimus westermani)

Larva of a botfly

A botfly, also written bot fly, bott fly or bot-fly in various combinations, is any fly in the family Oestridae. The life cycles vary greatly according to species, but the larvae of all species are internal parasites of mammals. Largely according to species they also are known variously as warble flies, heel flies, and gadflies. The larvae of some species grow in the flesh of their hosts, while others grow within the hosts' alimentary tracts.

Larva of a botflyThe Larva of a botfly grows inside a mammal flesh, Eggs are deposited on animal skin directly, or the larvae hatch and drop from the eggs attached to the intermediate vector: the body heat of the host animal induces hatching upon contact or immediate proximity. Some forms of botfly also occur in the digestive tract after ingestion by licking.

Larva of a botfly•Botfly attacks a Mosquito and glues it’s eggs.

•Mosquito finds a human/sheep/deer

•Glue is broken due to immense heat from the host skin(sheep/human/deer) eggs are then dropped on the skin.

•Larva undetected forms a wound eventually digging a hole in the flesh.

•There it remains for approximately 5-6 weeks until it becomes engorged with flesh.

•At this stage, if left undetected, the maggot will pop its way out of the small hole that it has eaten inside of the host and fall to the ground where they pupate into an adult botfly in about 20 days time. Thus, the life cycle begins all over again.

Botfly Larva emerging from Skin

Larva of a botflyLife Cycle

Stays/feeds on flesh for

5-6 weeks

Maggots pops

and falls to the ground

to pupate

After 20 days:Adult Bot

fly

Bot fly seeks an intermediate host

Eggs dropped on flesh

LeishmaniaLeishmania is the parasite responsible for the disease leishmaniasis. it is spread through sandflies

Leishmania inside a bone marrow cell.

LeishmaniasisLeishmaniasis is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of the sandfly and can cause skin disease and systemic disease. The systemic form can be fatal, but treatment with antimony-containing compounds produces a high cure rate.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

There are different forms of leishmaniasis.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis affects the skin and mucous membranes. Skin sores usually start at the site of the sandfly bite. In a few people, sores may develop on mucous membranes.

Systemic, or visceral, leishmaniasis affects the entire body. This form occurs 2 - 8 months after a person is bitten by the sandfly. Most people do not remember having a skin sore. This form can lead to deadly complications. The parasites damage the immune system by decreasing the numbers of disease-fighting cells.

Life Cycle of the parasite

Lancet Liver Fluke(Dicrocoelium dendriticum)

The Lancet liver fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum) is a parasite fluke that tends to live in cattle or other grazing mammals.

The parasite spends its adult life inside the liver of its host. After mating, the eggs are excreted in the feces.

The first intermediate host, the terrestrial snail consumes the feces, and becomes infected by the larval parasites.

The snail attempts to defend itself by walling the parasites off in cysts, which it then excretes(either by coughing or vomiting it out) and leaves it behind in the grass or substrate.

Lancet Liver Fluke(Dicrocoelium dendriticum)

The second intermediate host, an ant. Ant’s favorite food is the snail slime.

uses the trail of snail slime as a source of moisture. The ant then swallows a cyst loaded with hundreds of juvenile lancet flukes.There, the fluke takes control of the ant's actions by manipulating it’s nerves. (Mind Control)

Lancet Liver Fluke(Dicrocoelium dendriticum)As evening approaches and the air cools, the infected ant is drawn away from other members of the colony and upward to the top of a blade of grass. Once there, it clamps its mandibles onto the top of the blade and stays there until dawn. Afterward, it goes back to its normal activity at the ant colony.

If the host ant were to be subjected to the heat of the direct sun, it would die along with the parasite. Night after night, the ant goes back to the top of a blade of grass until a grazing animal comes along and eats the blade, ingesting the ant along with it, thus putting lancet flukes back inside their host. They live out their adult lives inside the animal, reproducing so that the cycle begins again.

Life Cycle of the parasite

The Japanese lung fluke (Paragonimus westermani)

Paragonimiasis is a food-borne parasitic infection caused by the lung fluke which can cause a sub-acute to chronic inflammatory disease of the lung.

It is one of the more recognized lung flukes with the widest geographical range. It was discovered by Coenraad Kerbert (1849-1927) in 1878.

Adult Form

Egg form

The Japanese lung fluke (Paragonimus westermani)

The End