Gastrodiscoides Hominis

GASTRODISCOIDES HOMINIS Lewis and Mac Connel 1876 (syn. Gastrodiscus hominis), a trematode of the family Gastrodiscidae; the body reaches 4-8 mm in length, with a width of the posterior part of 3-4 mm. The posterior part of the body is equipped with a powerful sucker that is 4 times larger than the oral sucker (see figure 1). The esophagus is provided with two symmetric diverticula; the genital openings are located in the anterior half of the body. The characteristic eggs reach 0.15 mm in length, with a width of 0.072 mm; on one pole of the egg there is a cap, on the other - an asymmetric swelling of the shell (see figure 2). It occurs in the thick intestines and appendix of humans and pigs in Southeast Asia (Annam, Malay Archipelago, India, Cochin China) and is sometimes the cause of various intestinal disorders. In 1928, it was discovered by Badanin in a wild boar in Kazakhstan, which allows one to assume the possibility of its presence in the population of Kazan and other Central Asian republics. The life cycle of the parasite has not yet been fully studied. Infection, presumably, occurs through drinking raw water or through vegetables contaminated with the parasite (Brumpt).