HELMINTHS PHYLUM PLATYHELMINTHES

 Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
Characteristics:
 Nematoda (roundworms)
• Kingdom Animalia
Characteristics of Helminths • Habitat: Mostly parasitic
 multicellular eukaryotic animals • Symmetry: Dorsoventrally flattened
 possess digestive, circulatory, nervous, excretory, • Reproduction
and reproductive systems - Sexual by gametic fusion
 lack a digestive system – absorb nutrients from - Asexual by regeneration
the host’s food, body fluids, and tissues.
2 Classes of Plathyhelminths
 nervous system is reduced – do not need an
a. Trematodes
extensive nervous system because they do not
b. Cestodes
have to search for food or respond much to their
environment. The environment within a host is
fairly constant. CLASS TREMATODA
 reduced or completely lacking means of Characteristics:
locomotion – transferred from host to host, don’t • All parasitic
need to search actively for a suitable habitat. • Flat, leaf-shaped bodies with a ventral sucker and
 Complex reproductive system – Individuals an oral sucker.
produce large numbers of eggs, by which a • Obtain food by absorbing through their non-living
suitable host is infected. outer covering

*Parasitic helminths must be highly specialized to

CLASS CESTODA
live inside their hosts.
Characteristics:
Life Cycle • Intestinal parasites
 involve a succession of intermediate hosts for • Head or Scolex, has suckers
completion of each larval (developmental) stage of • Lack digestive system
the parasite & definitive host for the adult parasite • Absorb food through their cuticle
 Adult helminths may be dioecious; male • Proglottids are continually produced by the neck
reproductive organs are in one individual, and region of the scolex
female reproductive organs are in another. • Mature proglottids contains both male and
- reproduction occurs only when two adults of female reproductive organs and are essentially
the opposite sex are in the same host. bags of eggs.
 Adult helminths may also be monoecious, or
hermaphroditic—one animal has both male and
female reproductive organs. Two hermaphrodites
may copulate and simultaneously fertilize each
other. A few types of hermaphrodites fertilize
themselves.
Humans as Definitive Hosts Humans as Intermediate Hosts

 Taena saginata o Humans are the intermediate hosts for

- parasite of both cattle and humans but it can
only reproduce in human
- the beef tapeworm live in humans and can
reach length of 6m.
- scolex is 2mm long and followed by thousand or
more proglottids
- as the proglottids wriggle away from the fecal
material they increase their chances of being
ingested by an animal that is grazing.
• When the cysticerci are ingested by humans, all
but the scolex is digested.
• The scolex anchors itself in the small intestine
and begins producing proglottids.
• Diagnosis of tapeworm infection in humans is
based on the presence of mature proglottids
and eggs in feces.
Cysticerci
- can be seen macroscopically in meat,
- presence is referred to as “measly beef”
- inspecting beef that is intended
- for human consumption
- for “measly” appearance is one way to prevent
infections by beef tapeworm
- another method of prevention is to avoid the
use of untreated human sewage as fertilizer in
grazing pastures.
Echinococcus granulosus
o Dogs and coyotes are the definitive hosts for this
minute (2-8mm) tapeworm.
NEMATODA GENERAL CHARACTERISTIC
 Cylindrical and tapered at each end
 Have complete digestive system consisting of
mouth, intestine and an anus
 Dioecious
 Males are smaller than females and have one or
two hardened spicules on their posterior ends.
 Spicules – used to guide sperm to the female’s
genital pore.
 Some are free-living in soil and water and others
are parasite of plants and animals.
 Some nematodes pass their entire life cycle, from
egg to mature adult in a single host.
 Intestinal roundworms are the most common
causes of chronic infectious diseases.
The most common are Ascaris, hookworms and
whipworms infecting more than 2 billion people
Nematodes infections of humans can be divided
into two categories:
a. the egg is infective
b. the larva is infective

 Taenia solium
- humans are the only known definitive host of
pork tapeworm.
- when egg are eaten by pigs, the larval helminth
encysts in the pig’s muscles,
- humans become infected when they eat
undercooked pork.
- common in Latin America, Asia and Africa.
- Eggs shed by one person and ingested by
another person hatch, and the larvae encyst in
the brain and other parts of the body causing
Cysticercosis
EGGS INFECTIVE FOR HUMANS:
Ascaris lumbricoides
 Is a large nematode (30 cm in length) that infects
over 1 billion people worldwide and is dioecious
with sexual dimorphism
Baylisascaris procyonis (Racoon Roundworm)
 An emerging roundworm and are the definitive
host, although the adult roundworm can also live in
domestic dogs
Toxocara canis (from dog) and T.cati (from cats)
 can also cause larva migrans, a condition in which
larvae migrate through a variety of tissues
 These companion animals are the intermediate and
definitive hosts, but humans can become infected
by ingesting Toxocara eggs shed in the animals’
feces
Trichuris trichiura (Whipworm)
 The worms are spread from person to person by
fecal–oral transmission or through feces-
contaminated food
 The disease occurs most often in areas with
tropical weather and poor sanitation practices and
among children Enterobius vermicularis (Pinworm)
 Spends its entire life in a human host
LARVAE INFECTIVE FOR HUMANS
Strongyloides
 endemic in other countries
 Most infections are limited to a rash where the
nematode entered, but the larvae can migrate to
the intestine, causing abdominal pain, or to the
lungs, causing a cough
Necator americanus & Ancylostoma duodenale
(Adulthookworms)
 live in the small intestine of humans where in the
eggs are excreted in feces
*Trichinellosis is caused by a nematode that the host
acquires by eating encysted larvae in undercooked meat
of infected animals
Dirofilaria immitis
 A nematode which is spread from host to host
through the bites of Aedes mosquitoes.
 It primarily affects dogs and cats, but it can infest
human skin, conjunctiva, or lungs
*Heartworm-the parasitic worm where larvae injected
by the mosquito migrate into various organs such as the
heart.
Anisakines (Wriggly worms)
 Four genera of roundworms that can be
transmitted to humans from infected fish and
squid.