![]() In the digestive tract of the aquatic snail, the miracidia develop into cercaria.The miracidium actively seek a specific mud snail intermediate host ( Galba trunculata in Europe).When environmental conditions are suitable (wet and >10⁰C), the fluke eggs hatch into small infective larvae (miracidia).One fluke can pass between 5000 and 20,000 eggs per day The eggs they shed are passed down the bile ducts and into the intestine to be excreted in the faeces.The adult fluke resides in the bile ducts in the liver of the definitive host.There are also between 2.5 and 17 million reported cases of human fasciolosis from eating aquatic vegetation (mainly wild watercress) contaminated with infective metacercariae ( Ghildiyal et al, 2014). ![]() Fasciolosis does not just afflict sheep but all grazing animals are susceptible to infection including cattle, deer, rabbits and horses. In Europe the snail species naturally infected with Fasciola hepatica (Liver fluke) is Galba trunculata (previously known as Lymnaea trunculata), and in the USA multiple fresh water snail species belonging to the genus Lymnaea have been reported to harbour infection ( Dunkel et al., 1996). Climatic and hydrological factors play an important part in the epidemiology of the disease which is directly linked to the habitat of the intermediate mud snail host. Fasciolosis is an economically important and potentially fatal disease of sheep which can be associated with particular regions throughout the world directly linked to the habitat of an aquatic mud snail.
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