1. Allaa Hassan

2. dih-kroh-SEE-lee-um den-DRIH-tih-kum

5.  Phylum: Platyhelminthes  Class: Trematoda  Order: Plagiorchiida  Family: Dicrocoeliidae  Genus: Dicrocoelium  Species: Dicrocoelium dendriticum  Liver fluke that is a parasite fluke.  Lives in the liver of its hosts  3 host life cycle  Adult worm chills inside sheep/cow  Lays eggs  Sheds into environment with host’s poo

6.  Europe  North Asia  North America and Australia  North Africa  Found in areas favoring intermediate hosts ▪ Fields with dry and chalky soils.

8.  Cows  Sheep ▪ Any ‘grazer’  Although rare, humans, herbivorous, and carnivorous mammals can also serve as definitive hosts  through ingestion of infected ants.  No known vector

9.  1 st  Land snail  2 nd  Ant

10.  Sheep  Cows  Land snails  Ants  Goats  Pigs  Llamas  Alpacas

12.  Captain Higgins  http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgi ns http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgi ns

13.  Cows/sheep spread D. dendricitum eggs via poo.  Snails ingest poo along with eggs.  Eggs hatch in snail intestine, parasite crosses the wall of snail gut, settles in digestive gland, matures into fluke.  Fluke produces cercariae, snail’s defense system wraps cercariae in balls of slime.  Slime is coughed up by snail.  Ants ingest slime balls along with cercariae.  Parasite enters ant’s body, wanders, finds its way to a cluster of nerves that control ant’s motor skill.  Most lancet flukes go back to abdomen to form cysts.  1 or 2 stay behind in ants head…

14.  Once they have control over ant’s motor skills…zombie mode begins.  When the sun goes down, and the temperature is a bit cooler, the infected ant leaves its colony and is driven to the top of a blade of grass.  The ant is driven to clamp its jaws on the blade of grass until the sun rises once again.  (if ant is not eaten) once dawn comes, the ant resumes it daily activities with the colony, as if nothing happened.  This continues night after night until the ant is eaten with blades of grass, by grazers.

15.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E 9ZoM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E 9ZoM

16.  The flukes shoot out of the ants head and head straight for the liver.  They chill there until they’re adults.  Continue their lifecycle; they stay there, get married, have baby eggs.  Eggs are released into the  bile duct  Intestines  Poo

17.  Why does the ant come out at night and then head back to the colony after dawn?  Why not stay out during daylight?

18.  Humans  examine bile/ duodenal fluid for eggs  Animals  stool examination  post-mortem examination of the liver.

19.  Rare in humans  Most infections are asymptomatic and light  In heavier infections:  Cholecystitis ▪ Inflamed gallbladder  Liver abscesses  Upper abdominal pain.

20.  Drug of choice  Praziquantel

22. 1. http://people.emich.edu/kselby/page%202.html http://people.emich.edu/kselby/page%202.html 2. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins 3. http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature http://www.damninteresting.com/a-fluke-of-nature 4. http://www2.biology.ualberta.ca/parasites/ParPub/te xt/index/plagi02i.htm http://www2.biology.ualberta.ca/parasites/ParPub/te xt/index/plagi02i.htm 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E9ZoM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSUU3E9ZoM 6. http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2010/08/august- 10-dicrocoelium-dendriticum.html http://dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2010/08/august- 10-dicrocoelium-dendriticum.html 7. http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.h tm http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.h tm 8. http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.h tm http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Dicrocoeliasis.h tm