Blood+Fluke+Schistosoma+intercalatum

__**Common Name:**__ Blood Flukes

__**Scientific Name:**__ //Schistosoma intercalatum//

__**Phylum:**__ Platyhelimenthes

__**Class:**__ Trematoda

__**Location:**__ This species of blood flukes is located in a concentrated area surrounding the rain forests of Central and west Africa

__**Size:**__ 140-240 um long

__**Decription of Habitat:**__ Adult worms inhabit the mesenteric veins of the human colon.

__**Living Requirements:**__ Schistosoma intercalatum requires an intermediate snail host, a body of water to be transferred in, and then a definitive human host.

__**Life Cycle:**__ Blood Flukes have a sexual generation in the vascular system of their human host and an asexual genertaion in their intermediate snail hosts.

__**Male/Female Differences:**__ The males are shorter and have a ventral infolding that creates a gynecophoric canal.

__**Facts:**__
 * 1) After malaria, and intestinal helminthiasis, schistosomiasis is the third most devastating tropical disease in the world.
 * 2) Common signs of infection of an definitive host include abdominal pain and bloddy diarrhea.
 * 3) Scistosomiasis has been detected in the placenta and newborns have been diagnosed with the disease- meaning that it has evolved to be congenital.

__**Human Impact:**__ Refugee movements and migration from the rain forest areas into urban areas are spreading this parasite to new locations.

__ Zookeeper's Sources: __ [] [] []