Chapter 25, Problem 16A

Summary Introduction

To determine:

The life cycle of a beef tapeworm.

Introduction:

Tapeworms belong to cestodes, which is a class of flat parasitic worms, they usually have several hosts in their life cycle. The adult tapeworms live in intestinal tract of many vertebrates.

Explanation of Solution

The tapeworm are the intestinal parasites that live in the human intestines. The tapeworm has a scolex that is a hook like structure and help in the attachment of the parasite to the intestinal lining from where it obtains its food.

The beef tapeworm involves an intermediate host, which is a cattle. The cattle get infected from the contaminated grass and when human eat raw or unproperly cooked meet of the animal, the tapeworm’s egg or organism get inserted in the digestive system of humans. The life cycle of a beef tapeworm is given below: