Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fasciola hepatica

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Parasitology

  • 379 Accesses

Name

Latin: fasciola = small band; Greek: hepai = liver.

Classification

Genus of Digenea.

Morphology

The life cycle of the so-called large liver fluke is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Life cycle of Fasciola hepatica of humans and of numerous plant feeding animals, ruminants, rabbits, horses etc., which are final hosts (a). The final hosts excrete operculated eggs, within which a miracidium stage develops. After hatching in fresh water this motile stage enters an intermediate host (snails, b), wherein finally typical tailed cercariae develop. These stages swim to waterplants, become attached there, and encapsulate themselves to become a metacercaria, which is ingested by a final host (a)

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Further Reading

  • Byrne AW et al (2016) Liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) infection in cattle in Northern Ireland: a large-scale epidemiological investigation utilising surveillance data. Parasit Vectors 9(1):209

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Charlier J et al (2015) ECONOHEALTH: placing helminth infections of livestock in an economic and social context. Vet Parasitol 212:62–67

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley JM et al (2016) Current threat of triclabendazole resistance in Fasciola hepatica. Trends Parasitol 32:458–469

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Novobilský A, Höglund J (2015) First report of closantel treatment failure against Fasciola hepatica in cattle. Int J Parasitol Drugs Drug Resist 5:172–177

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Solana MV et al (2016) In vivo assessment of closantel ovicidal activity in Fasciola hepatica eggs. Exp Parasitol 160:49–53

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Zoomorphologie, Zellbiologie und Parasitologie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

Authors
  1. Heinz Mehlhorn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heinz Mehlhorn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoomorphology and Parasitology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Heinz Mehlhorn

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this entry

Cite this entry

Mehlhorn, H. (2015). Fasciola hepatica . In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_1163-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27769-6_1163-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27769-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation