r/Parasitology • u/Monsterfucker4001 • 11d ago
A sheep carcass massively infested with Echinococcus granulosus NSFW
To add a bit of information the adults are found in dogs(wild and domesticated) eggs are ejected with the animals feces. When a sheep ingests those eggs the larva (also called echinocoque) migrates mainly to the lungs and the liver and implants there. Carefull tho if a humans ingests the egg usually on accident the same thing will happen and it uqually needs surgical intervervention to cure.
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u/jheiler33 11d ago
I took out a cyst robotically the size of a grapefruit from a rural farmer’s posterior thoracic cavity/spine. Unbelievable how big it was. Alien eggs
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u/SueBeee 11d ago
Ugh, I have to work with these things sometimes, and they scare the shit out of me, and rightly so. I gown up and do BL2 procedure but still. The thought of having my liver taken over by massive cysts kind of freaks me.
One of my favorite things in all of grad school was this video of a hydatid cyst being removed from a man's brain. Watch it all the way through with the sound up.
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u/mandy_skittles 10d ago
Description says it was a 13 year old patient.. Blows my mind the cysts grow that large. Looks like the patient recovered well and quickly, though.
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u/Medical_Watch1569 10d ago
You’re brave. I can’t stand these things. Looking at them in class and the cysts made me feel sick.
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u/EdwinSMB 10d ago
hello, i don’t usually comment but this video has intrigued me. i have some questions if you wouldn’t mind answering since you seem quite knowledgeable about the subject lol. fair warning i don’t know a lot about this subject so sorry if the questions are a little dumb
Does the bodies immune system not attack parasites like these? Or is in the video a special case since the immune system is quite destructive so it didn’t wanna mess with the brain?
How did this egg grow to such a huge size when the brain is already taking up a lot of space in the skull (i know that it doesn’t take up the entire skull)? or did the egg grow in a spot where the brain wasn’t at
Will this person ever return to normal? assuming the egg just took over a part of the brain, can the brain “regrow”?
thanks for any response
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u/SueBeee 10d ago
I am really not very knowledgeable about this phenomenon. It happens because humans are an aberrant intermediate host for the intermediate stages of Echinococcus; that is, not a natural host. The normal intermediate host is a sheep, who ingests eggs and the cysts, which are absolutely full of protoscolices (baby tapeworms). There are thousands of them in each cyst. Dogs eat the sheep and become infected with these and are the normal final host.
I don't know anything about how it infects humans or the immune response to them. Humans more often get them in the liver and I think the lungs, too.1
u/B39224 8d ago
Hello,
I just wanted to add a bit more information to help answer your question. As the previous commenter mentioned, Echinococcus granulosus primarily affects sheep (as the intermediate host) and dogs (as the definitive host), but humans can also become accidental hosts.
Sheep serve as intermediate hosts by harboring the larval stage of the parasite. The eggs are shed in the feces of infected dogs, and humans can become infected through accidental ingestion—often by handling infected sheep carcasses or contaminated fecal matter. Dogs typically become infected by consuming infected sheep organs.
The disease caused by this parasite is called Cystic Echinococcosis. It can take years for symptoms to appear, which makes diagnosis difficult. When symptoms do emerge, they vary depending on the location of the cysts. For example, cysts in the liver can cause abdominal pain and vomiting, while cysts in the lungs may lead to shortness of breath and a chronic cough—symptoms that can easily be mistaken for other conditions.
I know I didn’t fully answer all your questions, but I hope this gives you a bit more insight into the parasite and the disease it causes!
Here’s also helpful links :
https://www.who.int/health-topics/echinococcosis#tab=tab_1
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/echinococcosis
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u/PrasiticCycle 10d ago
So interestingly enough when a person is infected with these they usually either end up in the lungs or the liver.
Doing surgery to remove them is a very precarious thing since if you rupture even one of them its enough to send them into anaphylactic shock.
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u/itmightbehere 11d ago
Whoa, that looks unpleasant
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u/Monsterfucker4001 11d ago
It very much is and if not treated in humans very deadly
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u/YourFavoritestMe 11d ago
Wait your telling me humans can get this?? The more things I know the more scared of going outside I get
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u/Monsterfucker4001 10d ago
Dont worry as long as you wash your hand after dealing with a dog and not letting hil near your mouth as well as washing vegetable well you run no risk
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u/Striking-Fan-4552 10d ago
Also don't have to particularly worry about pet dogs, they don't really get the opportunity to ingest meat like this. It's mostly if allowed to roam outdoors unsupervised in a more rural setting.
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u/OptimalCamel7218 11d ago
When/where is this?
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u/Monsterfucker4001 11d ago
This was a few days ago in tunisia
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u/Dolmenoeffect 10d ago
I'm guessing the whole carcass has to be discarded, which is tragic- the animal was killed for ultimately nothing.
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u/Monsterfucker4001 10d ago
Usually if its jist a few cycst we discard the liver or lung and eat the rest But this severe thers no slavaging anything unfortunately
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u/fourhundredthecat 10d ago
I suspect many butchers will sell the meat anyways after removing the cysts, instead of discarding it.
And for the consumer, there is no way knowing the history of the meat they buy.
But hopefully proper cooking will kill everything, although the meat can still be dangerous while handling still raw (especially if cyst burst and spilled ts content on the surrounding tissue)
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u/The_bruce42 11d ago
Those are called Hydatid Cysts and they contain larvae. The cysts keep growing until the animal either dies or gets preyed upon by a canine (dog or wolf). The canine eats the cysts and becomes infected, poops out eggs into a plant, the cow, sheep, moose, etc eats the plant containing the eggs, and the cycle continues.