Schistosoma

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Schistosoma Species

  • The schistosomes are also known as "blood-flukes"
  • There are several important species producing serious human and animal disease in the tropics
  • The pathology is mostly associated with the passage of eggs through the liver, urinary bladder or intestinal wall (depending on the predilection site of the fluke)
  • As their common name suggests, the adults live in blood vessels
  • Unusually for a trematode, the sexes are separate
  • The smaller female lies enveloped by the male
  • The eggs of most species have spikes to assist their passage through host tissue to get into faeces or urine (depending on predilection site)
  • The intermediate hosts are water snails
  • On release, the cercariae swim in water and actively seek their final host, which they enter by skin penetration
    • There is therefore no metacercaria stage