Baby flukes!

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Pat Thielen
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Baby flukes!

#1 Post by Pat Thielen » Tue Feb 13, 2018 9:59 pm

Aren't they cute? They grow up so fast! Well, not so much. These images are both of the stage of the parasite when it first hatches from the egg in a pond and they go looking for a nice home in a snail. At this point they aren't infectious to people, but they soon will be. I find the life cycle of parasites to be incredibly fascinating and I think about how something as specific and complex ever came to be. These photos are from slides I purchased from Triarch, Inc. in Ripon, Wisconsin.
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Blood fluke larva; Schistosoma mansoni. 5 image focal stack, 40/0.64, Phase Contrast, Nikon d810, Photoshop CC
Blood fluke larva; Schistosoma mansoni. 5 image focal stack, 40/0.64, Phase Contrast, Nikon d810, Photoshop CC
micro0015883_5_image_stack_400x.jpg (153.96 KiB) Viewed 4673 times
Liver fluke larva; Fasciola hepatica. 40/0.64, Phase Contrast, Nikon d810, Photoshop CC
Liver fluke larva; Fasciola hepatica. 40/0.64, Phase Contrast, Nikon d810, Photoshop CC
micro0015745.jpg (180.84 KiB) Viewed 4673 times
Pat Thielen
Motic BA310, C & A Scientific Premiere SMZ-07, Swift Eleven-Ninety, Swift FM-31, Bausch & Lomb VM349, Olympus CHA
Nikon d810

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Nance
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Re: Baby flukes!

#2 Post by Nance » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:24 am

fascinating... is the head the thinner end?

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Pat Thielen
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Re: Baby flukes!

#3 Post by Pat Thielen » Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:30 am

Nance wrote:fascinating... is the head the thinner end?

You know -- I'm not completely sure. I think its actually the wider end but I could certainly be mistaken (it's happened before once or twice). You can see the cilia if you look closely as well. Nasty beasties these guys.
Pat Thielen
Motic BA310, C & A Scientific Premiere SMZ-07, Swift Eleven-Ninety, Swift FM-31, Bausch & Lomb VM349, Olympus CHA
Nikon d810

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Nance
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Re: Baby flukes!

#4 Post by Nance » Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:59 am

I have photos of adults from human liver infestation... the heads are like a snails... the thinner nozzle-like part coming off of the plumper body. they can get pretty big - more than an inch. I don't know anything about this stage of the game though, or even for sure if it is the same beast, but it sure resembles it.

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Pat Thielen
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Re: Baby flukes!

#5 Post by Pat Thielen » Fri Feb 16, 2018 5:49 am

Nance wrote:I have photos of adults from human liver infestation... the heads are like a snails... the thinner nozzle-like part coming off of the plumper body. they can get pretty big - more than an inch. I don't know anything about this stage of the game though, or even for sure if it is the same beast, but it sure resembles it.

The stages I photographed here are the miracidium stage; this is the initial hatching of the organism before it finds a snail host. This stage isn't infectious unless you happen to be a right kind of snail. And they are really quite small; these were photographed at 400x. When I first got the slides I didn't think there was anything on them! These guys would probably resemble protozoa more than anything else if observed live; they have cilia for swimming and haven't developed into anything worm-like just yet.

In the pond behind my house there are snails. I'm going to see if I can find any fluke larva in it this summer.
Pat Thielen
Motic BA310, C & A Scientific Premiere SMZ-07, Swift Eleven-Ninety, Swift FM-31, Bausch & Lomb VM349, Olympus CHA
Nikon d810

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Nance
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Re: Baby flukes!

#6 Post by Nance » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:02 pm

thank you for the insight. something to consider is that once in the human,
they obviously reproduce, and proliferately, without the snail-host stage.
interesting. I need to study more about the different stages and how all
that works - and the different stages once in the human host - and how
all that correlates - if at all.

meanwhile, I fastidiously clean and ozone all vegetables that are eaten raw. :)

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vasselle
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Re: Baby flukes!

#7 Post by vasselle » Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:18 pm

Bonjour
Belle observation
Cordialement seb
Microscope Leitz Laborlux k
Boitier EOS 1200D + EOS 1100D

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Jonnyvine
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Re: Baby flukes!

#8 Post by Jonnyvine » Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:57 pm

Ok :)

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Re: Baby flukes!

#9 Post by Francisco » Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:14 pm

Interesting

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Pat Thielen
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Re: Baby flukes!

#10 Post by Pat Thielen » Fri Mar 16, 2018 6:45 am

Nance wrote:fascinating... is the head the thinner end?

I just watched a video of these guys on Youtube and it seems the wider end is the head end, although they do have flexibility and they sort of ooz about like an amoeba to some extent.
Pat Thielen
Motic BA310, C & A Scientific Premiere SMZ-07, Swift Eleven-Ninety, Swift FM-31, Bausch & Lomb VM349, Olympus CHA
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SunshineLW
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Re: Baby flukes!

#11 Post by SunshineLW » Sat Mar 31, 2018 8:36 am

Pat Thielen wrote:
Nance wrote:I just watched a video of these guys on Youtube and it seems the wider end is the head end, although they do have flexibility and they sort of ooz about like an amoeba to some extent.

You are correct. The wider end is the anterior.

Also, two additional cool facts about miracidia:

(1) Route of infection varies depending on the species of the organism. Some miracidia are ingested by the mollusk Intermediate host; whereas, others penetrate directly into the snail's "foot".

(2) Miricidia are the stage of the organism that hatch from the egg. Most (if not all) miracidia will hatch only when the egg is completely immersed in water; hence, why fluke infestations tend to be found only on properties where ruminants graze boggy, snail-infested pastures.

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