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Parasitic worms cannot reproduce entirely within their host's body; they have a life cycle that includes some stages that need to take place outside of the host. [3] Helminths are able to survive in their mammalian hosts for many years due to their ability to manipulate the host's immune response by secreting immunomodulatory products. [4]
Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (helminths) are the cause of soil-transmitted helminthiases. They are classified along with arthropods, tardigrades and other moulting animals in the clade Ecdysozoa.
Major groups of parasites include protozoans (organisms having only one cell) and parasitic worms (helminths). Of these, protozoans, including cryptosporidium, microsporidia, and isospora, are most common in HIV-infected persons. Each of these parasites can infect the digestive tract, and sometimes two or more can cause infection at the same time.
Helminthiasis, also known as worm infection, is any macroparasitic disease of humans and other animals in which a part of the body is infected with parasitic worms, known as helminths. There are numerous species of these parasites , which are broadly classified into tapeworms , flukes , and roundworms .
Parasites of animals are highly specialised, each parasite species living on one given animal species, and reproduce at a faster rate than their hosts. Classic examples include interactions between vertebrate hosts and tapeworms, flukes, and those between the malaria-causing Plasmodium species, and fleas.
The pinworm (species Enterobius vermicularis), also known as threadworm (in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) or seatworm, is a parasitic worm.It is a nematode (roundworm) and a common intestinal parasite or helminth, especially in humans. [7]
The soil-transmitted helminths (also called geohelminths) are a group of intestinal parasites belonging to the phylum Nematoda that are transmitted primarily through contaminated soil. They are so called because they have a direct life cycle which requires no intermediate hosts or vectors , and the parasitic infection occurs through faecal ...
The helminth Spinochordodes parasitising a bush-cricket (Meconema sp.) A plate from Félix Dujardin's 1845 Histoire naturelle des helminthes ou vers intestinaux. Helminthology is the study of parasitic worms (helminths). The field studies the taxonomy of helminths and their effects on their hosts.