Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Parasite Case of the Week 1

Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites will now be posting a new parasite Case of the Week. Starting every Monday, a new case will be posted. Please feel free to submit your answers and comments (there's an anonymous feature for those of you who are shy). The answer will be posted the following week with the new case.


Case #1












Click on the images to enlarge.
Questions:
What is this organism?
What are the objects within it?
List 2 parasites transmitted by this vector. Bonus - list 4!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to this case of the week. Blogsite looks great. Hope all is well in the mother country and with all things new and exciting!

My guess is a copepod larvae (although if pinned down, I'm not sure I could explain what a copepod is exactly). Even so, I say it's one of these containing a nematode -- perhaps larval guinea worms?

I've learned (just now in fact) that "copepods" play a role in diphyllobothriasis, gnathostomiasis, and sparganosis, so I suppose it could be this. Or maybe it's a flea after all, but it looks funny to be flea . . . and what's with those whiskers?

ParasiteGal said...

Great thoughts. Keep 'em coming!

Anonymous said...

I reckon a cyclops (copepod),
inside is dracunculus medinensis, so spreads dracunculiasis,
can also be intermediate host larvae of diphyllobothrium latum, will think some more to get the other 2 diseases!

Lady bug said...

Cyclops water flea with Gnathostom spp inside.