Sheep liver fluke

Use

Trematoda

Facts

• Sheep liver fluke is also called the lancet liver fluke.
• Sheep liver fluke lives in a number of domestic animals including cattle, sheep and pigs.
• The sheep liver fluke is a common parasite of the biliary tract of herbivores all over the world, but rarely leads to a human disease.
• Fasciola hepatica or the sheep liver fluke is a trematode that infects the liver of sheep.
• Spurious infections can occur in humans who have eaten infected animal liver.
• Human infections with F. hepatica are found in areas where sheep and cattle are raised, and where humans consume raw watercress, including Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
• During the acute phase, manifestations include abdominal pain, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, urticaria and eosinophilia, and can last for months.

The chronic phase occurs when the adult fluke reaches the bile duct. Then it causes more discrete symptoms and reflect intermittent biliary obstruction and inflammation.