Liver Fluke


Definition of Liver Fluke
(Scientific name: Fasciolosis)

From the elephant glossary Section: disease


Illustration of Fasciola jacksoni in a 1910 book, “Elephants and their diseases, a treatise on elephants” by G. H. Evans (CC BY 4.0 via National Library of Scotland)
Illustration of Fasciola jacksoni in a 1910 book, “Elephants and their diseases, a treatise on elephants” by G. H. Evans (CC BY 4.0 via National Library of Scotland)


Random Literature
Fascioliasis, commonly called Liver Fluke, is a serious problem for elephants throughout Asia with continuous reports from India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia of considerable morbidity and Mortality in domestic and semi wild elephants.

The genus Fasciola contain 2 Species of Trematode worms, acting as parasites in animals, common on sheep who eat grass close to river or water, and other herbivores, with amphibious snails as host, and eggs can be found on grass close to water, where snails are living.

Fasciolosis is a zoonosis, which means that the parasite can be transferred between animals and humans, and infect inner organs, especially the liver (Hepar).

Elephant fascioliasis is considered to be one of the most neglected tropical veterinary diseases of working animals and understanding of infection in wild populations of elephants are extremely limited (Heneberg et al., 2013).


Prof Jayanthe Rajapakse led a team of veterinarians and parasitologists on a 39 month survey of the health of wild elephants across Sri Lanka from January 2000 to April 2003, collecting faecal samples from living elephants and performing autopsies on wild elephants that had been killed as a result of human activity as well as individuals with a fatal burden of F. jacksoni.

The autopsies showed that over 50% of the elephants were infected with F. jacksoni, with livers showing cholangitis, an inflammation of the bile duct, and major fibrosis of the liver, a scarring of the liver as result of the parasite’s activity.

2 Deceased elephants due to Liver Fluke.

NameSpecies
Sex		OriginAgeBirthDeath dateDeath reasonParentsArrival
Death location
+ -Timon-EM
M		wild1119621973disease
Fasciolosis (infection of parasite liver fluke)		 x 1964-00-00
Circus Carl Althoff
+ -Dago-LA
M		wild?<19631973disease
Fasciolosis (infection of parasite liver fluke)		 x 1964-00-00
Circus Carl Althoff



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Liver Fluke mentioned in The Elephant Database
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4 elephants in the elephant database match the word Liver Fluke




Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2023). Liver Fluke. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=255. (archived at the Wayback machine)

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Categories glossary | disease


About this documentThis document was created: 2023-05-17. Latest update: 2023-05-20 13:54:33 included 1607 characters with valid HTML5 Valid CSS



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