Paramphistomum Species
- Paramphistomomes are rare in the UK, but can cause severe losses in ruminants in the wet tropics
- The adult fluke is plump and cylindrical (unusual for a trematode)
- It attaches to the wall of the rumen without causing serious damage
- The eggs are like those of Fasciola, but are colourless
- The intermediate hosts are water snails
- These shed cercariae that form metacercariae on vegetation
- Disease occurs if metacercariae are eaten in large numbers
- Enteritis and diarrhoea result when immature flukes migrate along the small intestine (where the metacercariae excyst) towards the rumen