services
add site
stats
database
health videos
designs
toolbar
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise services add site stats database health videos
| | about designs toolbar live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
Tapeworm Infection medic8.com | In Victoria, BC, Canada :: Tapeworms... petsareourpassion.com | Symptoms: - T - from tapeworm to tyramine-restricted diet myelectronicmd.com | Diphyllobothrium latum - Tapeworm naturalhealthtechniques.c... |
For the musical collaboration named Tapeworm, see Tapeworm (band). Tapeworm is also an older name for a type of computer virus.
Cestoda (Cestoidea) is a class of parasitic flatworms, commonly called tapeworms, that live in the digestive tract of vertebrates as adults and often in the bodies of various animals as juveniles. Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm, can grow up to 12 m (40 ft); other species may grow to over 30 m (100 ft).[1]
[edit] Anatomy[edit] ScolexThe worm's scolex ("head") attaches to the intestine of the definitive host. In some species, the scolex is dominated by bothria, which are sometimes called "sucking grooves", and function like suction cups. Other species have hooks and suckers that aid in attachment. Cyclophyllid cestodes can be identified by the presence of four suckers on their scolex. Once anchored to the host's intestinal wall, the tapeworm absorbs nutrients through its skin as the food being digested by the host flows past it, and it begins to grow a long tail, with each segment containing an independent digestive system and reproductive tract. Older segments are pushed toward the tip of the tail as new segments are produced by the neckpiece. By the time a segment has reached the end of the tail, only the reproductive tract is left. It then drops off, carrying the tapeworm eggs to the next host.[2] While the scolex is often the most distinctive part of an adult tapeworm, it is often unnoticed in a clinical setting as it is inside the patient. Thus, identifying eggs and proglottids in feces is important. [edit] Body systemsThe main nerve centre of a cestode is a cerebral ganglion in its scolex. Motor and sensory innervation depends on the number and complexity of the scolex. Smaller nerves emanate from the commissures to supply the general body muscular and sensory ending. The cirrus and vagina are innervated and sensory endings around the genital pore are more plentiful than other areas. Sensory function includes both tactoreception and chemoreception. Some nerves are only temporary. These are in the proglottids, and stop working with a detach. [edit] ProglottidsThe body is composed of successive segments (proglottids). The sum of the proglottids is called a strobila, which is thin, resembling a strip of tape, and is the source of the common name "tapeworm". Like some other flatworms, cestodes use flame cells (protonephridia), located in the proglottids, for excretion. Mature proglottids are released from the tapeworm's posterior end and leave the host in feces. Because each proglottid contains the male and female reproductive structures, they can reproduce independently. It has been suggested by some biologists that each should be considered a single organism, and that the tapeworm is actually a colony of proglottids. The layout of proglottids comes in two forms, craspedote, meaning proglottids are overlapped by the previous proglottid, and acraspedote which indicates a non-overlapping conjoined proglottid. [edit] Life cycle
Many tapeworms have a two-phase life cycle with two types of host. The adult taenia saginata, for example lives in the gut of a primate such as a human. Proglottids leave the body through the anus and fall onto the ground, where they may be eaten with grass by animals such as cows. In the cow's body the juvenile forms migrate and establish themselves as cysts in body tissues such as muscles, rather than the gut; they cause more damage to this host than the intestinal form to its host. The parasite completes its life cycle when the grass-eater is eaten by a compatible carnivore—possibly a human with a preference for rare meat—in whose gut the adult taenia establishes itself. .[3] [edit] TaxonomyThere are fourteen recognised orders of Cestodes: the Amphilinidea, Gyrocotylidea and 12 orders belonging to the Eucestoda. Within the Eucestoda the Spathebothriidea appear to be a sister group to the remaining 11 orders.[4] The Pseudophyllidea and Haplobothriidea appear to form a clade as do Cyclophyllidea, Nippotaeniidea and Tetrabothriidea. [edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
This article incorporates 