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The Evil Mind Controlling Parasite aka Dicrocoelium dendriticum

Allaa Hassan. The Evil Mind Controlling Parasite aka Dicrocoelium dendriticum. dih - kroh -SEE-lee-um den- DRIH - tih - kum. D. Dendriticum. Phylum: Platyhelminthes Class: Trematoda Order: Plagiorchiida Family: Dicrocoeliidae Genus: Dicrocoelium Species: Dicrocoelium dendriticum

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The Evil Mind Controlling Parasite aka Dicrocoelium dendriticum

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  1. Allaa Hassan The Evil Mind Controlling ParasiteakaDicrocoelium dendriticum

  2. dih-kroh-SEE-lee-um den-DRIH-tih-kum

  3. D. Dendriticum • Phylum: Platyhelminthes • Class: Trematoda • Order: Plagiorchiida • Family: Dicrocoeliidae • Genus: Dicrocoelium • Species: Dicrocoelium dendriticum • Liver fluke that is a parasite fluke. • Lives in the liver of its hosts • 3 host life cycle • Adult worm chills inside sheep/cow • Lays eggs • Sheds into environment with host’s poo

  4. Geographic Range • Europe • North Asia • North America and Australia • North Africa • Found in areas favoring intermediate hosts • Fields with dry and chalky soils.

  5. Definitive Hosts • Cows • Sheep • Any ‘grazer’ • Although rare, humans, herbivorous, and carnivorous mammals can also serve as definitive hosts • through ingestion of infected ants. • No known vector

  6. Intermediate hosts • 1st • Land snail • 2nd • Ant

  7. Reservoirs • Sheep • Cows • Land snails • Ants • Goats • Pigs • Llamas • Alpacas

  8. Life Cycle

  9. Life cycle… • Captain Higgins • http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins

  10. Life cycle… • Cows/sheep spread D. dendricitum eggs via poo. • Snails ingest poo along with eggs. • Eggs hatch in snail intestine, parasite crosses the wall of snail gut, settles in digestive gland, matures into fluke. • Fluke produces cercariae, snail’s defense system wraps cercariae in balls of slime. • Slime is coughed up by snail. • Ants ingest slime balls along with cercariae. • Parasite enters ant’s body, wanders, finds its way to a cluster of nerves that control ant’s motor skill. • Most lancet flukes go back to abdomen to form cysts. • 1 or 2 stay behind in ants head…

  11. Zombie mode (Symptoms/effects) • Once they have control over ant’s motor skills…zombie mode begins. • When the sun goes down, and the temperature is a bit cooler, the infected ant leaves its colony and is driven to the top of a blade of grass. • The ant is driven to clamp its jaws on the blade of grass until the sun rises once again. • (if ant is not eaten) once dawn comes, the ant resumes it daily activities with the colony, as if nothing happened. • This continues night after night until the ant is eaten with blades of grass, by grazers.

  12. Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E9ZoM

  13. Once ingested… • The flukes shoot out of the ants head and head straight for the liver. • They chill there until they’re adults. • Continue their lifecycle; they stay there, get married, have baby eggs. • Eggs are released into the • bile duct • Intestines • Poo

  14. Question • Why does the ant come out at night and then head back to the colony after dawn? • Why not stay out during daylight?

  15. Diagnostic tests • Humans • examine bile/ duodenal fluid for eggs • Animals • stool examination • post-mortem examination of the liver.

  16. Symptoms in Humans • Rare in humans • Most infections are asymptomatic and light • In heavier infections: • Cholecystitis • Inflamed gallbladder • Liver abscesses • Upper abdominal pain.

  17. Treatment • Drug of choice • Praziquantel

  18. Simon Says…

  19. Works Cited • http://people.emich.edu/kselby/page%202.html • http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins • http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature • http://www2.biology.ualberta.ca/parasites/ParPub/text/index/plagi02i.htm • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E9ZoM • http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2010/08/august-10-dicrocoelium-dendriticum.html • http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.htm • http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.htm

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