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Cryptosporidium Serpentis
''Cryptosporidium serpentis'' is a protozoal parasite that infects the gastrointestinal tract of snakes. Sporated oocysts of ''C. serpentis'' are intermittently shed in the feces, and transmission is primarily via fecal-oral route. ''C. serpentis'' is a gastric parasite, primarily colonizing the stomach. Unlike mammalian Cryptosporidium - that is usually self-limiting - ''C. serpentis'' remains chronic and in most cases, eventually lethal in snakes once an animal has become symptomatic. However, recent advancements in detection have led to the identification of healthy carrier animals some of which have thus far remained in good health for years and cast dought on previous assumptions about the lethality of the parasite, though it remains to be seen how many carriers will remain healthy and for how long as most such animals are uthanised immediately. Cryptosporidiosis infection has been documented in a variety of snake species worldwide, such as North American Corn snakes (''Elap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taipan
Taipans are snakes of the genus ''Oxyuranus'' in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, highly venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Taipans are some of the deadliest known snakes. Taxonomy The common name, taipan, was coined by anthropologist Donald Thomson after the word used by the Wik-Mungkan Aboriginal people of central Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. The Wik-Mungkan people used the name in reference to an ancestral creator being in Aboriginal Australian mythology known as the Rainbow Serpent. The genus name is from Greek ὀξῠ́ς (''oxys'': sharp, needle-like) and οὐρανός (''ouranos'': an arch, specifically the vault of the heavens), and refers to the needle-like anterior process on the arch of the palate, which Kinghorn noted separated the genus from all other elapids. The oft-quoted meaning "sharp-tailed" (based on a confusion with οὐρ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ectothermic
An ectotherm (from the Greek () "outside" and () "heat") is an organism in which internal physiological sources of heat are of relatively small or of quite negligible importance in controlling body temperature.Davenport, John. Animal Life at Low Temperature. Publisher: Springer 1991. Such organisms (for example frogs) rely on environmental heat sources, which permit them to operate at very economical metabolic rates. Some of these animals live in environments where temperatures are practically constant, as is typical of regions of the abyssal ocean and hence can be regarded as homeothermic ectotherms. In contrast, in places where temperature varies so widely as to limit the physiological activities of other kinds of ectotherms, many species habitually seek out external sources of heat or shelter from heat; for example, many reptiles regulate their body temperature by basking in the sun, or seeking shade when necessary in addition to a whole host of other behavioral thermo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptosporidium Parvum
''Cryptosporidium parvum'' is one of several species that cause cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic disease of the mammalian intestinal tract. Primary symptoms of ''C. parvum'' infection are acute, watery, and nonbloody diarrhea. ''C. parvum'' infection is of particular concern in immunocompromised patients, where diarrhea can reach 10–15 times per day. Other symptoms may include anorexia, nausea/vomiting, and abdominal pain. Extra-intestinal sites include the lung, liver, and gall bladder, where it causes respiratory cryptosporidiosis, hepatitis, and cholecystitis, respectively. Infection is caused by ingestion of sporulated oocysts transmitted by the faecal-oral route. In healthy human hosts, the median infective dose is 132 oocysts. The general ''C. parvum'' lifecycle is shared by other members of the genus. Invasion of the apical tip of ileal enterocytes by sporozoites and merozoites causes pathology seen in the disease. Infection is generally self-limiting in immunocompete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptosporidium Muris
''Cryptosporidium muris'' is a species of coccidium, first isolated from the gastric glands of the common mouse. ''Cryptosporidium'' does originate in common mice, specifically laboratory mice. However, it also has infected cows, dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, lambs, and humans and other primates. General characteristics ''Cryptosporidium muris'' infects dogs, rabbits, lambs, cats, humans, and non-human primates. This type of ''cryptosporidium'' infects people and animals by the oocyst acquired in water. If people or animals drink the water, then they could become infected and then complete the cycle by passing oocysts. People and animals can also become infected by being in water that has the oocysts present. The area where ''Cryptosporidium muris'' most commonly occurs is in Kenya, France, Thailand, and Indonesia. It also occurs in the western hemisphere but to a far lower amount. Diagnostics and prevention The current diagnostics for ''Cryptosporidium muris'' are Polymerase Cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parasites Of Reptiles
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one". Parasites include single-celled protozoans such as the agents of malaria, sleeping sickness, and amoebic dysentery; animals such as hookworms, lice, mosquitoes, and vampire bats; fungi such as honey fungus and the agents of ringworm; and plants such as mistletoe, dodder, and the broomrapes. There are six major parasitic strategies of exploitation of animal hosts, namely parasitic castration, directly transmitted parasitism (by contact), trophicallytransmitted parasitism (by being eaten), vector-transmitted parasitism, parasitoidism, and micropredation. One major axis of classification concerns invasiveness: an endoparasite lives inside the host's body; an ect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptosporidiosis
Cryptosporidiosis, sometimes informally called crypto, is a parasitic disease caused by ''Cryptosporidium'', a genus of protozoan parasites in the phylum Apicomplexa. It affects the distal small intestine and can affect the respiratory tract in both immunocompetent (i.e., individuals with a normal functioning immune system) and immunocompromised (e.g., persons with HIV/AIDS or autoimmune disorders) individuals, resulting in watery diarrhea with or without an unexplained cough. In immunosuppressed individuals, the symptoms are particularly severe and can be fatal. It is primarily spread through the fecal-oral route, often through contaminated water; recent evidence suggests that it can also be transmitted via fomites contaminated with respiratory secretions. ''Cryptosporidium'' is commonly isolated in HIV-positive patients presenting with diarrhea. Despite not being identified until 1976, it is one of the most common waterborne diseases and is found worldwide. The infection beg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
