Dog+Tapeworm

**__Phyla:__** Platyhelimenthes **__Class:__** Amebicides **__Scientific Name:__** //Dipylidium caninum// **__Location:__** All over the world **__Size:__** Can grow up to 2ft long. **__Habitat:__** D og tapeworms live in the intestines of meat-eating mammals, mainly dogs, wolves, and jackals. The larvae live in the liver, lungs, and muscles of plant-eating mammals such as sheep, cattle, camels, pigs, goats, and horses. The habitat includes areas where humans live and work, such as pastures, farms, and villages.
 * __[[image:TapewormImg_1384.jpg width="320" height="240" align="right"]]Common Name:__** Dog Tapeworm

**__Life Cycle:__** life cycles that include an intermediate host. These hosts include fleas, fish, and domestic animals such as sheep and pigs. All of the adult forms of these tapeworms live in the cat’s or dog’s digestive system. It is interesting that tapeworms have no digestive systems themselves, but absorb nutrients through their skin. The tapeworm is hermaphroditic (both male and female) and it continues the life cycle by releasing egg-filled proglottids through the anus.
 * __Male and Female Differences:__**


 * __[[image:dog_tapeworm_cycle.gif width="456" height="343" align="right"]]Human Impact:__** The disease caused by dog tapeworms is one of the most serious parasitic diseases for humans in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. Humans are infected as intermediate hosts, meaning larvae balls develop in their internal organs. Scientists are researching drug treatments, but until these drugs are developed, surgery remains the only method of treatment.

>  **Zookeeper: Kenzie Davidson** **__References:__** [] [] []
 * __Facts:__**
 *  If the intermediate host is eaten by a dog or cat, the life cycle begins again.
 *  When dogs first get a tapeworm it looks like grains of white rice.