Parasites and Health [Last Modified: ]
Filariasis
[Brugia malayi] [Brugia timori] [Loa loa] [Mansonella ozzardi]
[Mansonella perstans] [Mansonella streptocerca]
[Onchocerca volvulus] [Wuchereria bancrofti]

Causal Agent Life Cycle Geographic Distribution Clinical Features Laboratory Diagnosis Treatment

Life Cycle of Mansonella ozzardi:

Life cycle of Mansonella ozzardi

During a blood meal, an infected arthropod (midges, genus Culicoides, or blackflies, genus Simulium) introduces third-stage filarial larvae onto the skin of the human host, where they penetrate into the bite wound  .  They develop into adults that commonly reside in subcutaneous tissues  .  Adult worms are rarely found in humans.  The size range for females worms is 65 to 81 mm in length and 0.21 to 0.25 mm in diameter but unknown for males.  Adults worms recovered from experimentally infected Patas monkeys measured 24 to 28 mm in length and 70 to 80 μm in diameter (males) and 32 to 62 mm in length and .130 to .160 mm in diameter (females).  Adults produce unsheathed and non-periodic microfilariae that reach the blood stream  .  The arthropod ingests microfilariae during a blood meal  .  After ingestion, the microfilariae migrate from the arthropod's midgut through the hemocoel to the thoracic muscles  .  There the microfilariae develop into first-stage larvae  and subsequently into third-stage infective larvae  .  The third-stage infective larvae migrate to arthropod's proboscis  and can infect another human when the arthropod takes a blood meal  .

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