Beef+Tapeworm


 * Common Names:** Beef Tapeworm, "Unarmed" Tapeworm
 * Scientific Name:**//Taenia saginata//
 * Phyla:** Platyhelimenthes
 * Class:** Cestoda
 * Size:** Usually they find the tapeworm to be 5 meters long, but it can grow to 25-30 meters long.
 * Description of Habitat:** Commonly around infested cattle that raised poorly and have bad hygienes and found in under-cooked meat that has been poorly prepared.
 * Living Requirements:** They need a living host to live within.




 * Life Cycle of Animal:**


 * 1) The adult releases gravid segments (proglottids filled with eggs) that are carried away by the digestive tract and released into the environment through the feces.
 * 2) The proglottid segments are ingested by the cattle through the contaminated vegetation and then the proglottids enter the digestive tract of its intermediate host. The enzymes and acids found in the gastrointestinal tract break down the protective barrier of the proglottid and release up to 100,000 eggs into the bovines system.
 * 3) The eggs develop into oncosphere covered larvae that break through the intestine epithelium and travel through the circulation of the bovine. Then the larvae end up in the muscle tissue and the oncosphere fills with fluid and become a cysticercus.
 * 4) To finish complex life cycle, the undercooked beef meat must be eaten by a human (definitive host) and then will enter the digestive system. Digestive enzymes break down the cysticercus and the larval cyst is released and the inverted scolex is able to come out and attach to the host’s intestine. //Taenia// //saginata// is then able to grow, and within three months it can reach 5 meters long. At this point of maturity, the tapeworm is then able to release proglottids to restart is life cycle.



//**Work Cited**//
 * Interesting Facts:**
 * 25% of infected cattle are still sold.
 * The beef tapeworm is found all over the world (wherever beef is consumed), though it is rarely seen in the West today because we have learned how to interrupt its life cycle to avoid infection.
 * In rare cases infected humans suffer vague symptoms such as hunger of loss of appetite, nausea, weight loss, headaches and dizziness, and diarrhea. Very rarely, the worm causes bowel blockage.
 * Human Impact:** Tapeworms are still around, but we have reduced the amount of people that get infected by them. We do this by just managing our produce more safely.
 * Zookeeper: James Kanthachack**
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