Examples of cercaria in the following topics:
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- Upon contact with the skin of the swimmer, the cercaria will penetrate the skin and immediately die in the skin.
- Interestingly, the cercaria are unable to survive within a human host and cause infection.
- The symptoms and reactions exhibited in individuals diagnosed with swimmer's itch are a result of the dead cercaria larvae.
- If indeed the cercaria encounter a water bird, their normal host, the cercaria will penetrate the skin of the birds and migrate to the blood vessels to complete the cycle.
- In turn, the cercaria which are responsible for swimmer's itch are produced.
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- In turn, these migrate to the snails' hepatopancreas and the germ cells, now present within the secondary sporocysts, will divide to form thousands of new parasites called cercariae.
- Interestingly, the cercariae are released from the snail host in a circadian rhythm and depend on ambient temperature and light.
- Penetration of the human skin occurs after the cercariae have attached to and explored the skin.
- As the cercaria penetrates the skin, it transforms into a migrating schistosomulum stage.