Paramphistomum
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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) and 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.