There is no easy answer for this one as all parasites have different life cycles. But here’s the general outline of a typical parasitic organism that’s rather common.
Take worms…
Let’s start the out at adults inside the host (You). They feed off what you feed so you are the host and they are the parasite. They can harm you by taking your nutrients that you normally get from your food. You may get stomach cramps, gas, and possibly Diarhea.
The worms lay eggs that passes out through your ***** (poop). These eggs may get passed along until they come into contact with another organism…like chicken. Now you’re thinking “how does a chicken get into contact with my ****?” The answer to that is where does your **** go after the sewage treatment plant gets through with it? Fertilizer my good sir. So now the chicken has the eggs. The eggs hatch into an infant worm (Larva) where it will undergo the first stages of it’s life.
The next step requires a would be host to be careless. Since the worm is living in the chicken (mostly in the chicken’s muscles) it’s completely harmless if properly cooked. But let’s just say it’s not properly cooked and the worm lives. So when eaten the work gets inside the new host and feeds on this host’s nutrients. It grows to adult and lays more eggs to start the cycle again.
So in summary…
We start with egg–> primary host contracts the egg and hatches the larva–>secondary host eats meat with the larva–>larva grows in the new host then produces new eggs and starts cycle again.
Without knowing which parasites we’re talking about this is the typical way parasites goes through their lifecycle. Some parasites don’t require in intermediary host.
As Uncle Charlie suggested, parasite life cycles are complex and so there is no specific way of answering this question.
In general, parasites require a host (an organism which they can live inside or outside of and can “feed off of”). For some parasites, there can be more than one host (primary, secondary host) and in order to complete their life cycle, they need ALL of these hosts. Like some insects that you may know of, parasites go from egg–>larvae–>adult and some parasite can have different larval stages or other stages. With each “stage” in the parasite’s life cycle, expect to find that the parasite has adapted to that stage. For example, some parasites require a swimming type tail or something like it at the larval stage so they can swim to their next host (if they happen to be in water, of course).
It is incredibly important that we know about the life cycle of parasites to treat patients because we want to know at what stage of the life cycle the parasite is infecting its host(typically the adult stage in humans but that is not always the case) and at what stage in the life cycle is the parasite most “vunerable” (likely to be killed) so that we can prevent the spread of this parasite. For example, malaria is a common and heartbreaking disease found in third world countries (like Africa) and is caused by a parasite that is carried by a mosquito (one of its host). The final host is in the human and this parasite can cause all sorts of problems including death. Biologists are in the process of finding a way to control the malarian parasite by controlling its spread in the mosquito. If scientists did not know part of the life cycle was in the mosquito, this could of course not be done. Once the parasite of malaria is in the human, it can attack several places including the red blood cells and the liver, depending on what part of the life cycle it is in. Obviously, knowing the life cycle here can help develop the proper treatment of the parasite.
Also, if a parasite ends up in the incorrect host, there can be problems. For example, the tapeworm that is typically found in humans have two hosts: the pig and the human. Eggs from the tapeworm are first eaten by pigs and those eggs develop into larvae that stay in the meat of the pig. Humans get tapeworm larvae from eating poorly cooked pork and those larvae are adults by the time they reach the gut of the human. BUT if a human should accidently consume the eggs (they should consume the larvae via the pig), then this larvae grows up in the incorrect host and this larvae could end up in migrating to the brain, causing all sorts of neurological problems. Ouch. Again, if you didn’t know about the life cycle of the tapeworm, you would be in trouble.
These are just two examples to add to what Uncle Charlie suggested but hopefully they showed you what a parasite life cycle may be like and why it is important to know. There are a lot of cool, deadly, crazy and gross types of parasites out there. If you are at all interested in them, check out the book Parasite Rex.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
the metamorphosis of it . you know egg, pupa, adult.
It means the stages of a parasite, from egg to an adult.
There is no easy answer for this one as all parasites have different life cycles. But here’s the general outline of a typical parasitic organism that’s rather common.
Take worms…
Let’s start the out at adults inside the host (You). They feed off what you feed so you are the host and they are the parasite. They can harm you by taking your nutrients that you normally get from your food. You may get stomach cramps, gas, and possibly Diarhea.
The worms lay eggs that passes out through your ***** (poop). These eggs may get passed along until they come into contact with another organism…like chicken. Now you’re thinking “how does a chicken get into contact with my ****?” The answer to that is where does your **** go after the sewage treatment plant gets through with it? Fertilizer my good sir. So now the chicken has the eggs. The eggs hatch into an infant worm (Larva) where it will undergo the first stages of it’s life.
The next step requires a would be host to be careless. Since the worm is living in the chicken (mostly in the chicken’s muscles) it’s completely harmless if properly cooked. But let’s just say it’s not properly cooked and the worm lives. So when eaten the work gets inside the new host and feeds on this host’s nutrients. It grows to adult and lays more eggs to start the cycle again.
So in summary…
We start with egg–> primary host contracts the egg and hatches the larva–>secondary host eats meat with the larva–>larva grows in the new host then produces new eggs and starts cycle again.
Without knowing which parasites we’re talking about this is the typical way parasites goes through their lifecycle. Some parasites don’t require in intermediary host.
As Uncle Charlie suggested, parasite life cycles are complex and so there is no specific way of answering this question.
In general, parasites require a host (an organism which they can live inside or outside of and can “feed off of”). For some parasites, there can be more than one host (primary, secondary host) and in order to complete their life cycle, they need ALL of these hosts. Like some insects that you may know of, parasites go from egg–>larvae–>adult and some parasite can have different larval stages or other stages. With each “stage” in the parasite’s life cycle, expect to find that the parasite has adapted to that stage. For example, some parasites require a swimming type tail or something like it at the larval stage so they can swim to their next host (if they happen to be in water, of course).
It is incredibly important that we know about the life cycle of parasites to treat patients because we want to know at what stage of the life cycle the parasite is infecting its host(typically the adult stage in humans but that is not always the case) and at what stage in the life cycle is the parasite most “vunerable” (likely to be killed) so that we can prevent the spread of this parasite. For example, malaria is a common and heartbreaking disease found in third world countries (like Africa) and is caused by a parasite that is carried by a mosquito (one of its host). The final host is in the human and this parasite can cause all sorts of problems including death. Biologists are in the process of finding a way to control the malarian parasite by controlling its spread in the mosquito. If scientists did not know part of the life cycle was in the mosquito, this could of course not be done. Once the parasite of malaria is in the human, it can attack several places including the red blood cells and the liver, depending on what part of the life cycle it is in. Obviously, knowing the life cycle here can help develop the proper treatment of the parasite.
Also, if a parasite ends up in the incorrect host, there can be problems. For example, the tapeworm that is typically found in humans have two hosts: the pig and the human. Eggs from the tapeworm are first eaten by pigs and those eggs develop into larvae that stay in the meat of the pig. Humans get tapeworm larvae from eating poorly cooked pork and those larvae are adults by the time they reach the gut of the human. BUT if a human should accidently consume the eggs (they should consume the larvae via the pig), then this larvae grows up in the incorrect host and this larvae could end up in migrating to the brain, causing all sorts of neurological problems. Ouch. Again, if you didn’t know about the life cycle of the tapeworm, you would be in trouble.
These are just two examples to add to what Uncle Charlie suggested but hopefully they showed you what a parasite life cycle may be like and why it is important to know. There are a lot of cool, deadly, crazy and gross types of parasites out there. If you are at all interested in them, check out the book Parasite Rex.