The body (strobilus) of a tapeworm has a ribbon-like shape. Consists of individual segments - proglottids. At the anterior end of the body there is a head (scolex), followed by an unsegmented neck. On the head there are attachment organs - suckers, hooks, suction slits (bothria).
Diseases caused by tapeworms are called cestodiases.
Bovine tapeworm (Taeniarhynchus saginatus) is the causative agent of taeniarynchosis. There are only 4 suction cups on the head.
The final host of the bovine tapeworm is only humans, intermediate hosts are cattle. Animals become infected by eating grass, hay and other food with proglottids, which, along with feces, get there from humans. In the stomach of livestock, oncospheres emerge from the eggs, which settle in the muscles of the animals, forming fins. They are called cysticerci. A cysticercus is a fluid-filled sac with a head with suction cups screwed into it. Finns can be preserved in the muscles of livestock for many years.
Able to actively crawl out of the anus one by one.
A person becomes infected by eating raw or half-raw meat from an infected animal. In the stomach, under the influence of the acidic environment of gastric juice, the shell of the finna dissolves, and the larva emerges and attaches to the intestinal wall.
The effect on the host is:
1) the effect of food withdrawal;
3) imbalance of intestinal microflora (dysbacteriosis);
4) impaired absorption and synthesis of vitamins;
5) mechanical irritation of the intestines;
6) possible development of intestinal obstruction;
7) inflammation of the intestinal wall.
Prevention.
1. Personal. Thorough heat treatment of meat.
2. Public. Strict supervision over the processing and sale of meat. Carrying out sanitary education work with the population.
44. Dwarf pork tapeworm
Porcine, or armed, tapeworm (Taenia solium) is the causative agent of taeniasis. The final owner is only human. Intermediate hosts are pigs and, occasionally, humans. The segments are excreted in human feces in groups of 5–6 pieces. When the eggs dry out, their shell bursts and the eggs scatter freely. Flies and birds also contribute to this process.
Pigs become infected by eating sewage, which may contain proglottids. The egg shell dissolves in the stomach of pigs, and six-hooked oncospheres emerge from it. Through the blood vessels they enter the muscles, where they settle and after 2 months turn into fins. They are called cysticerci and are a bubble filled with liquid, inside of which a head with suction cups is screwed.
Human infection occurs when eating raw or insufficiently heat-treated pork. Under the influence of digestive juices, the cysticercus membrane dissolves; The scolex is everted and attached to the wall of the small intestine.
With this disease, reverse intestinal motility and vomiting occur quite often. In this case, mature segments enter the stomach and are digested there under the influence of gastric juice. The released oncospheres enter the intestinal vessels and are carried through the bloodstream to organs and tissues. They can enter the liver, brain, lungs, eyes, where cysticerci form.
Treatment of cysticercosis is only surgical.
Diagnostics. Detection of mature segments in the patient's feces.
Prevention.
1. Personal. Thorough heat treatment of pork.
2. Public. Pasture protection - strict supervision over the processing and sale of meat.
The dwarf tapeworm (Hymenolepis nana) is the causative agent of hymenolepidosis. The head is pear-shaped, has 4 suckers and a proboscis with a corolla of hooks. The strobila contains 200 or more segments; only eggs enter the environment. Egg size is up to 40 microns. They are colorless and have a round shape.
Man is both an intermediate and a final host. Oncospheres penetrate into the villi of the small intestine, where cysticercoids develop from them. Young individuals attach to the intestinal mucosa and reach sexual maturity.
Pathogenic effect. The processes of parietal digestion are disrupted. The body is poisoned by the waste products of the helminth. Intestinal activity is disrupted, abdominal pain, diarrhea, headaches, irritability, weakness, and fatigue appear.
Diagnostics. Detection of dwarf tapeworm eggs in the feces of a patient.
Prevention.
1. Compliance with personal hygiene rules.
2. Public. Thorough cleaning of child care facilities.
Bull tapeworm is also called unarmed tapeworm. This is due to the fact that there are no hooks on the head of the worm, while the pork (armed) tapeworm has them. The bovine tapeworm is attached to the intestinal walls only by suckers. The word "tape" comes from the word "chain". The body of the worm consists of individual segments, which makes it somewhat similar to a chain.
Intermediate host is cattle in which bovine tapeworm larvae develop.
Taeniarinhoz is most common in those areas where people eat poorly cooked beef (Latin America, Africa, etc.).
The structure of the bull tapeworm
According to the external structure, the body of an adult tapeworm consists of a head ( scolex), neck and many segments ( proglottid). New segments form in the cervical area. As you move away from it, larger and more mature proglottids are found. “Maturity” is determined by the maturation of the eggs in the segment. At the posterior end of the worm, the proglottids break off and exit the intestines along with the feces or simply crawl out.
The body length of an adult bull tapeworm varies greatly. Can reach more than 10 m, but usually less. The length of mature segments is about 2 cm. The number of segments is more than 1000. One individual lives about 18 years.
On the scolex there are 4 suckers without hooks.
The internal structure of the bovine tapeworm is in many ways characteristic of flatworms: a skin-muscular sac, parenchymal tissue instead of body cavities, the absence of circulatory and respiratory systems, a hermaphroditic reproductive system, the presence of an excretory system consisting of protonephridia. However, tapeworms are characterized by the absence of an intestine and mouth opening, i.e., a general absence of a digestive system.
The worm's body is covered tegument, in which the outer cytoplasmic layer has projections, due to which food is absorbed. Since the adult bovine tapeworm lives in the small intestine, where food has already been digested, it essentially does not need the digestive system.
The life cycle of the bovine tapeworm includes a change of two hosts (humans and cattle) and consists of the following stages: egg → larva I ( oncosphere) → larva II ( Finn) → adult.
The detached segment ends up outside, where it can crawl and disperse its eggs containing oncospheres.
If an egg enters the digestive tract of, for example, a cow, then the larval stage of the bovine tapeworm, the oncosphere, already formed in the egg, comes out of it. It is equipped with hooks, with the help of which it drills through the intestinal wall and enters the cow’s circulatory or lymphatic system. Oncospheres are carried through the blood into the muscles and connective tissues of the host animal. Here the oncosphere turns into Finn (Finnish). It can be considered the second larval stage of the bovine tapeworm.
A Finn cow can live for many years in its body.
If a person eats uncooked beef meat containing finca, then the heads of a young bovine tapeworm unfold in his intestines. They adhere to the intestinal wall, begin to feed and form segments.
Scolex (head part) of a pork tapeworm under a microscope
Pork tapeworm (armed tapeworm or pork tapeworm) is a type of tapeworm that most often chooses a pig or wild boar as an intermediate host. The final host is exclusively human, but he can also act as an intermediate host.
The lifespan of an adult pork tapeworm in the body of the definitive host can reach up to 25 years.
Structure
The respiratory system does not require oxygen, i.e. anaerobic. Nervous – poorly developed. The reproductive system is highly developed - the worm produces a huge number of eggs (up to 5 million per day). There is no digestive system.
Life cycle
When consuming pork that has not undergone the required heat treatment, a person becomes infected. After the cysticercus enters the intestine, it turns its head outward and clings to the intestinal walls with the help of suction cups and hooks. Then new segments grow from the end and within about two months adult individuals are formed. The development cycle closes.
Humans can also become accidental intermediate hosts when they become infected with embryonated eggs while consuming contaminated foods.
Damage caused
The helminth enters the human body through food, unwashed hands, dishes, and dirty laundry. The danger is that during vomiting the larvae may end up in the stomach. They get there from the intestines and are easily spread throughout the body.
Adult live pork tapeworm on glass
In many cases, cysticercosis leads to brain damage, blindness, tumor-like growths and decreased eosinophil levels. This causes serious neurological problems such as hydrocephalus, meningitis, and seizures, which often leads to death.
The main preventive measure is good heat treatment of pork. Meat can be frozen at -10°C for 5 days. Dirty hands are also the cause of human infection with cysticercosis. Therefore, maintaining personal hygiene is considered an effective preventive measure.
Bovine and pork tapeworm in humans: symptoms, treatment
- Bull tapeworm
- Sources of infection
- Symptoms
- Diagnostics
- Treatment
- Prevention
- Video
The uninvited “cohabitants” of our body include flat or tapeworms from the group of protostomes: bovine and pork tapeworms, broad tapeworm (tapeworm) and dwarf tapeworm. They are not only the largest, but also the most dangerous, and here's why:
Bull tapeworm
This type of helminth is called Taeniarhynchus saginatus or naked tapeworm. It differs in that at its head end the scolex has suction cups that allow it to be fixed to the intestinal wall. This worm looks like a thin ribbon consisting of 1000 or more segments (proglotids), reaching a length of 10-12 m in an adult.
This helminth is a direct relative of the bovine tapeworm and is called Taenia Solium, but unlike it it is called armed, because on the head of the scolex, in addition to suckers, there is a corolla of chitinous hooks. This allows the worm to attach more firmly and penetrate into the thickness of the intestinal wall.
Neither artiodactyls nor pigs can get sick with either taeniarinhoz or taeniasis for the simple reason that they do not eat meat. But they eat food contaminated with worm eggs, which are excreted in human feces. This is the “continuity” between domestic animals and their owners, without which neither one nor the other can develop the disease.
Advice: a person can also become infected with tapeworm eggs from his own relative, and then he develops, like animals, cysticercosis. The larvae spread to all organs and tissues of the body, affecting them, as well as forming encapsulated fins.
Symptoms
Despite the fact that tapeworms are quite large, they can remain in the body undetected for a long time. The symptoms they cause are not specific and can be mistaken for other diseases. This:
- periodic abdominal cramps, bloating;
- bowel dysfunction - constipation, diarrhea;
- poor appetite;
- feeling of nausea;
- headache;
- increased fatigue, poor sleep;
- weight loss;
- pale skin caused by anemia;
- skin rashes, itching;
- thinning hair, thinning nail plates;
- decreased immunity, increased susceptibility to various infections.
With severe intoxication, there may be significant changes in hematopoiesis (blood formation), which can be mistaken for a hematological disease. Damage to the intestinal wall by scolex hooks causes the development of peritonitis. This is manifested by severe abdominal pain, plank-like tension in the abdominal muscles, and increased body temperature. Sometimes yellowish-white fragments can be seen in the feces - separated segments of the worm up to 2 cm long.
Diagnostics
Many people believe that testing stool for worm eggs provides a 100% guarantee of their detection. This is not entirely true. Fecal analysis for helminths is mandatory, but it is not always possible to detect them, even after repeated studies. Just as testing feces for enterobiasis does not always reveal pinworms and their eggs.
The proglotids of a bovine tapeworm do not come out every day, but in a pork tapeworm they do not crawl out at all. Therefore, stool tests are taken multiple times. A blood test is also carried out, which reveals anemia, eosinophilia, and leukocytosis. An ultrasound of internal organs is prescribed.
The most informative is a modern serological blood test - the determination of specific antibodies against tapeworm.
Teniarinhoz is treated according to one of the following regimens:
- Praziquantel is prescribed once at a rate of 15 mg of the drug per 1 kg of body weight.
- Niclosamide – 2 g once for adults; children’s dose is selected individually. Before taking, drink 1 teaspoon of baking soda diluted in half a glass of water 10-15 minutes before taking it.
- Fenosal or dichlorsal for adults 2 g, dissolved in ½ glass of water, once at night, 2-3 hours after meals.
After ingestion, increased withdrawal of segments begins, which can last up to 2-3 months, sometimes a whole individual can come out. After the proglottide has stopped expelling, a re-examination is carried out.
Treatment for pork tapeworm is basically the same, but patients are often hospitalized for observation, because the eggs of this helminth, when their shell is destroyed, can easily turn into larvae right in the intestines and cause cysticercosis in the patient. After treatment, the patient is observed for a year every 3-4 months, with repeated examinations, and, if necessary, repeated administration of anthelmintic drugs.
Advice: Herbal remedies alone cannot get rid of tapeworm. Only special anthelmintic chemotherapy drugs can do this, and herbal remedies can be used as an addition to treatment.
Prevention
The set of measures to prevent taeniarinchiasis, taeniasis and cysticercosis includes both personal and systemic prevention.
Personal prevention:
- meat should be purchased only from places where sanitary control is carried out;
- carefully inspect the product to see if there are any yellowish-white inclusions or spots on it;
- avoid eating poorly processed meat, and even more so a raw food diet (raw liver, salted and pickled raw meat, rare steak, and so on);
- careful observance of personal hygiene.
Systemic prevention. These measures fall within the competence of the sanitary-epidemiological and veterinary services, they include:
- monitoring the condition of the sewerage system, wastewater treatment;
- veterinary supervision of livestock keeping on farms;
- checking raw meat products entering the retail chain;
- sanitary and epidemiological supervision of meat industry enterprises.
Video
Teniarinhoz, or bovine tapeworm
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The structure of the bull tapeworm
Feces infected with bovine tapeworm oncospheres end up on the soil and hay. Helminth eggs are not afraid of moderate cold and can overwinter in the soil. But under the influence of ultraviolet radiation and a temperature of 30-37 degrees, oncospheres die.
The intermediate hosts of bovine tapeworm are cows, bulls, deer, and buffaloes. These animals, feeding on grass contaminated with helminth eggs, become carriers of the disease.
The larva of a bovine tapeworm through the walls of a cattle intestine is able to penetrate into the bloodstream, spread throughout the body and settle in the muscles and connective tissues. Here the larvae develop into a cysticercus within 4 months. These are the so-called bull tapeworm Finns. They can live in the body of livestock for about nine months, then die. In Fig. Figure 1 shows the development cycle of the bovine tapeworm.
The Finn enters the human intestine through contaminated, raw or poorly cooked meat. Here it is transformed, the head with suction cups is exposed and firmly fixed on the mucous membrane. Then the formation of the adult tapeworm begins.
The development of bovine tapeworm from cysticerci in the human body occurs within 80 days. After this, the sexually mature segments of the helminth break off and are excreted along with human feces. Thus, the life cycle of the bull tapeworm closes and repeats itself again.
Main signs of helminth infection and its diagnosis
- the nervous system becomes upset, increased fatigue, weakness, headaches and insomnia appear;
- heartburn, nausea, vomiting, dyspepsia or constipation, abnormal salivation;
- non-localized pain in the abdominal area, without a specific location: in the stomach, on both sides of the abdomen or in its lower part;
- a sharp change in appetite from complete absence to severe hunger;
- The main and indisputable sign of infection with a bovine tapeworm is the exit of the worm segments through the anus alone or with feces.
Diagnosing bovine tapeworm infection is difficult, especially at the initial stage due to mild symptoms. To determine the diagnosis, the following is used:
If infection with this helminth could not be detected at an early stage, then in a later period there may be complications of the disease in the form of intestinal obstruction, perforation of its walls and, as a consequence, the occurrence of peritonitis, pancreatitis, appendicitis, and disruption of the biliary system. The outcome of the disease is positive in most cases.
Treatment of the disease and prevention of infection with bovine tapeworm
After a quarter of an hour, take Fenasal, dissolved in 100 ml of sweetened water. The exact dosage is strictly as prescribed by the doctor, on average it is no more than 2-3 g for an adult patient.
Bovine tapeworm is also removed from humans using dry fern extract, pumpkin seeds and cleansing enemas, which are done in the evening before taking the herbal medicine and in the morning on the day of treatment.
To prevent the disease, you must avoid eating raw or undercooked meat. Roasting or boiling time for meat is at least an hour. For information: Finns can survive helminths inside large pieces of kebab weighing 50 g when fried. Therefore, it is better to buy meat that has passed veterinary control, or to boil it thoroughly.
Pork and bovine tapeworms: similarities and differences
This helminth looks like a microscopic head with a proboscis on which 6 chitinous hooks are located. A neck and body grow from the head in the form of a white ribbon. The length of an adult worm can reach from 1 to 6 meters.
Pork tapeworm is easier to remove than bovine tapeworm, but infection with it is many times more dangerous. Pork tapeworm larvae can grow in the human body, which is extremely dangerous for humans.
With the help of hooks, the larvae make their way through the intestinal walls into the circulatory system, spread throughout the body and settle in other organs: in the stomach, liver, even in the brain and eyes. Such cases of damage are irreversible, manifest themselves in the form of seizures, convulsions, loss of vision and end in death for the sick person.
Such serious consequences of the disease should accustom people to the idea of never eating meat from livestock that has not passed the control of veterinary services, not eating questionable kebabs, avoiding public toilets, and always washing hands with soap after visiting crowded places.
Strict adherence to the rules of nutrition and personal hygiene will completely protect a person from infection with dangerous helminths.
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class tapeworms
one of the largest human helminths, reaches a length of 10 and even 18 meters, is similar in structure to the pork tapeworm, its distinctive features are absence of hooks on the scolex and the third additional ovarian lobule in the hermaphroditic segment. In addition, in the mature segment the uterus has significantly more lateral branches. Mature segments, detaching from the strobila, can independently crawl out of the anus and move around the body and underwear.
life cycle
final owner only Human, intermediate - cattle. a sick person excretes segments and eggs in their feces, which can be eaten by livestock. develop in the body of the intermediate host Oncospheres and Finns. Finns formed in the muscles are transmitted to humans by eating contaminated meat that is poorly cooked or fried. bovine tapeworm eggs, unlike tapeworm eggs, are not capable of developing in the human body, therefore the Finnous form is not found in it.
diagnostics
detection of adult segments in feces. It is impossible to distinguish between pig and bovine eggs.
Figure: development and structure of the bovine tapeworm
Features of the structure of the bovine tapeworm
Bovine tapeworm nutrition
Reproduction of the bovine tapeworm
Like most other flatworms, tapeworms are hermaphrodites. In each of its segments, except for the youngest, there is one ovary and many testes. The eggs mature only in the oldest, posterior segments. These segments break off and come out with feces.
Bovine tapeworm development
Cattle can ingest tapeworm eggs in grass. In the stomach of the animal, microscopic larvae with hooks emerge from the eggs. With their help, the larvae burrow into the wall of the stomach, enter the bloodstream, spread throughout the animal’s body and penetrate the muscles. Here the six-hooked larva grows and turns into Finnish- a bottle the size of a pea, inside of which there is a tapeworm head with a neck.
In undercooked or undercooked meat, tapeworm larvae are kept alive. If a person eats such meat, he becomes infected with it. Bovine tapeworm secretes toxic substances, which cause intestinal disorders and anemia in humans.
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