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Life Cycle of Echinococcus

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the Echinococcus is a parasite that mammals can become infected with. Commonly called tapeworm, there are six distinct stages of the Echinococcus life cycle.

  1. Adult Stage

    • The adult stage evolves in the small intestine of the host animal. The adult tapeworm is attached to the intestine wall by a scolex, or sucker head.

    Egg Stage

    • The adult Echinococcus passes off eggs for reproduction. These leave the body in the animal's feces through the waste removal process.

    Oncosphere Stage

    • The tapeworm eggs, which were passed in fecal matter, are ingested by another host. The egg hatches in the small intestine and produces an oncosphere, or tapeworm embryo, which goes through the intestinal wall and gets into the circulatory system, eventually entering the host's organs.

    Cyst Stage

    • The oncosphere turns into a cyst inside of the chosen organ and produces many other cysts inside itself. The scolex, which becomes the sucker part of the adult tapeworm, is formed as these cysts develop.

    Evagination Stage

    • These cyst-infected organs are eaten by yet another host, where the asexually produced scolices evaginate, or turn themselves inside out.

    Scolex Attachment Stage

    • The evaginated scolices attach to the intestinal wall, where they develop into the adult stage in one to two months. The Echinococcus life cycle begins all over again.

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