Life Cycle and Developmental Stages of Philophthalmus gralli in the Intermediate and Final Hosts

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Abstract
De-velopment of P. gralli in the snail host includes 3 redial generations and the cercarial stage. The mother redia develops in the heart cavity. Some daughter rediae development the heart cavity and others, including the granddaughter rediae, develop in the digestive gland. The mother redia lacks a digestive tract and possesses many small papillae over the surface of the body. The daughter redia resembles the growing mother redia, but has well-developed muscular pharynx and cecum. The granddaughter redia resembles the previous stage but the cuticle does not possess papillae. Cercariae emerge from the snail about 95 days after infection. Following oral administration of excysted metacercariae to chicks, the young flukes were found under the nictitating membrane of the eyes within 24 hours. Young flukes were able to migrate from one eye to the other. It appears that eggs of the fluke are eliminated from the avian host by direct contact of the eyes, nasal and oral passages with water, rather than being eliminated through the feces of the host.
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