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Family TAENIIDAE Ludwig, 1886

Introduction

The family Taeniidae Ludwig, 1886 is a small but economically important family of cestodes, comprising three genera Echinococcus Rudolphi, 1809, Taenia Linnaeus, 1758, and the recently resurrected genus Hydatigera (see Nakao et al. 2013). The adult cestodes of this genus are parasitic in the intestines of canids, felids and hominids and all Australian species are introduced. The life cycle involves a mammal as the intermediate host, and it is the larval or metacestode stages in the intermediate hosts that are pathogenic.

Echinococcus granulosus (Batsch, 1786) is the cause of hydatid disease in Australia. The adult cestode in the small intestine of the dog is unobtrusive and relatively harmless. However, in the intermediate hosts, which include ruminants, macropods and humans, the hydatid cyst can develop to a large size causing morbidity or mortality in the host (Kumaratilake & Thompson 1982).

Four species of Taenia are present in dogs in Australia, two of which utilise the rabbit and hare as intermediate hosts, and two of which use ruminants as their primary hosts. A single species in cats has rodents as intermediate hosts. Taenia ovis, the metacestode or cysticercus stage of which occurs in the musculature of sheep has been important economically in the past, since infected meat has been the subject of import restrictions. Taenia saginata occurs in humans in Australia but is not endemic. It represents a problem for sewage treatment systems in which effluent is sprayed onto pastures grazed by cattle, the intermediate hosts .A single species, H. taeniaeformis, occurs in cats and has rodents as intermediate hosts.

The taxonomic arrangement followed here is that of Rausch (1994), modified by Nakao et al. (2013).

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
26-Nov-2015 CYCLOPHYLLIDEA van Beneden in Braun, 1900 08-Apr-2014 MODIFIED
06-Feb-2014 15-Apr-2011 MODIFIED
12-Feb-2010 (import)