If cysticercosis is mainly the cause of eggs of T solium fro

If cysticercosis is mainly the cause of eggs of T. solium from human feces, can\'t the pig\'s feces transmit it as well?

The medical literature usually mentions infection from human feces from HUMANS who actually have the tapeworm in them. But if someone was cleaning after pigs\' fecal matter and they ingested parts of the pig\'s feces, can\'t they also get the T. solium cysticercosis (not taenasis)?

Please let me know if you know about this. Thanks!

Solution

No, cysticercosis is not transmitted through pig fecal matter. Cysticercosis is a infection caused by the larval stages of tapeworm (cestode ) T. solium. This infection is caused by ingestion of eggs shed in the feces of a human tapeworm carrier.

T. solium completes its life cycle in two hosts. Humans which act as definite host and pigs which serve as intermediate host.

Pigs ingest the eggs from human faeces or vegetation contaminated with human excreta. The embryonated eggs enter the intestine where they hatch into motile oncospheres.These oncospheres invade the intestinal wall, and migrate to the striated muscles, where they develop into cysticerci. A cysticercus can survive for several years in the animal. Humans get the infection in the form of small larvae, cysticerci by consuming pork.

In the human intestine, the cysticercus develops over 2 months into an adult tapeworm. The adult tapeworms attach to the small intestine by their scolex and reside in the small intestine. The adults produce proglottids which mature, become gravid, detach from the tapeworm, and migrate to the anus or are passed with faeces.The eggs contained in the gravid proglottids are released after the proglottids are passed with the feces. These eggs are taken up by pig and life cycle is repeated.

Cysticetcosis is caused by ingesting these eggs and from the life cycle of T.solium it becomes clear that eggs can be passed only through human farces and not pig faeces, therefore pigs cannot transmit cysticercosis from their fecal matter as this stage is not found in the intestine of pigs.