Of Parasites and Their Hosts
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2018, Vol 12, Issue 1
Abstract
Parasitism is an association between two different species of organisms, where only one partner which is always the parasite derives benefits metabolically. The other partner is the host and gets nothing in return but harm, damage or death [1]. A parasite lives in a particular way called parasitism. Parasitism as a one-sided partnership in which the host receives no benefits but instead some degree of harm, or death is an ingratitude and is synonymous the parasite committing matricide! An ‘ideal’ parasite must not even dare kill its host because the death of the host means the death of the parasite. An “ideal” parasite does not even exist because the slightest effects of all parasites are detrimental to their hosts [2]. Caullery [3] considers that “parasitism is a case of balance of power; the parasites and the host form a functional balance system which is placed in opposition to the external environment. Both the parasite and host make the best of a bad job. The host reacts to keep the parasite away or to a minimum while the parasite attempts to live as un-obstructively as possible, despite all the host’s reactions which threatens the parasites’ existence.Parasites Metabolic Dependency on the Hosts Could be in Several Ways: a) Nutritional: As in Flukes, tapeworms such as Diphyllobothrium latum; b) Developmental stimuli: As in P. intergerrinum and Opalina ranarum , (parasites of frog),; c) Digestive Enzymes: As in tapeworms such as Taenia sp and Echinococus sp; d) Shelter: As in endoparasites such as Plasmodium sp , Entamoeba sp, Ascaris sp e.t.c; e) Movement: As in ectoparasites such as lice, fleas, ticks and mites; f) Control of maturation: As in P. intergerrinum and Opalina ranarum.Parasitism has prolonged effects on Both Hosts and Parasites Such as: a) Parasites have mechanisms for locating their host like chemotaxis and active penetration such as Schistosome cercariae and hookworm larvae b) Transmission of parasites to the new host may be associated with daily or circadian rhythms such as cell division and migrating patterns [4]. c) Parasites have to survive in their host using several mechanisms like encystations, transformation or tail loss as in schistosome cercariae. d) Parasites have surfaces that play important roles in nutrition. There is usually a major nutritional interface with the host such as the digestive-absorptive epithelium in platyhelminthes which has enormous increase in surface area by development of folds and microvilli such as tubercules, spines and pores of flukes and tapeworms [5]. e) Damage to host can be as a result of immune response (immuno-pathology). This can be more damaging than the infection itself [5,6].
Authors and Affiliations
Okwa O Omolade
Keywords
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- EP ID EP586042
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.12.002188
- Views 135
- Downloads 0
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