Roundworms
Roundworms like Ascaris
(common cat and dog roundworm),
are simplest. The eggs
are swallowed by licking or
eating a bit of filth. They hatch
into a tiny larva. The larva treks
to the lungs. You cough it up and
swallow it. Meanwhile it has
molted a few times. It then
crawls to the intestine where it
becomes an adult, shedding eggs
in your stool.
Worms usually have preferred locations. The favorite organ
for Dirofilaria (dog heartworm) is the heart (even human heart).
Sometimes the rules can be broken. My tests show Dirofilaria
can live in other organs, too, if they are sufficiently polluted with
solvents, metals and other toxins.
Flatworms like tapeworms are much more complicated in
their life history. You could eat the eggs accidentally with dirt.
After hatching, the tiny larva burrows into its favorite organ.
Your body encases it with a cyst. The white blood cells have
been taught never to attack your body...and the cyst case is your
body! So the tapeworm stage has safe residence for some time. If
you are a meat eater, you could eat such a cyst if it happens to be
lodged in the meat you are eating! Your teeth break it apart as
you crunch. The little larva is swallowed and tries to attach itself
to your intestine with its head. Then it grows longer by making
segment after segment. The segments with their eggs leave with
the bowel contents. I often see dog tapeworm of the small variety
in their human family.
Flatworms like flukes are also very complicated. The eggs,
passed out with bowel contents were not meant to be eaten as
such. They were meant to hatch in a pond where snails and
minnows eat them. The larva grows up in these new
“secondary” hosts. Later, the snail sheds them and they attach
themselves to foliage near the pond. They over-winter in a tough
metacercarial cyst. An unsuspecting browsing animal now eats
them. They come out of their metacercarial cyst as a small adult
and quickly attach themselves to the intestine with a sucker. They
now have “safe haven” and can go about maturing and laying
eggs.
Four common flukes are: human intestinal fluke, human
liver fluke, sheep liver fluke, pancreatic fluke of cattle. Don't
let the terms sheep and cattle mislead you. They are all found in
humans.
