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There are more than 2,000 species of tiny (0.04 to 0.15 inches), wingless, blood-sucking fleas that live on the body of the host they infest. Although fleas cannot fly, they have developed ...
Myiasis (/ m aɪ. ˈ aɪ. ə. s ə s / my-EYE-ə-səss [1]), also known as flystrike or fly strike, is the parasitic infestation of the body of a live animal by fly larvae that grow inside the host while feeding on its tissue.
Fleas can transmit Rickettsia typhi, Rickettsia felis, Bartonella henselae, and the myxomatosis virus. [35]: 73 They can carry Hymenolepiasis tapeworms [37] and Trypanosome protozoans. [35]: 74 The chigoe flea or jigger (Tunga penetrans) causes the disease tungiasis, a major public health problem around the world. [38]
The human flea (Pulex irritans) – once also called the house flea [1] – is a cosmopolitan flea species that has, in spite of the common name, a wide host spectrum. It is one of six species in the genus Pulex ; the other five are all confined to the Nearctic and Neotropical realms . [ 2 ]
For example, the human body louse transmits the bacterium Rickettsia prowazekii which causes epidemic typhus. Although invertebrate-transmitted diseases pose a particular threat on the continents of Africa, Asia and South America, there is one way of controlling invertebrate-borne diseases, which is by controlling the invertebrate vector.
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Tungiasis is strictly caused by chigoe fleas (the term transmission does not apply because Tunga penetrans is itself responsible for the disease.) The preponderance of tungiasis lesions on the toes may be because chigoe flea is a poor jumper, attaining only a height of 20 cm. [ 14 ] But the reality is more complex; for example, the jumping ...
This process mechanically transmits pathogens that may cause diseases it might carry. Fleas smell exhaled carbon dioxide from humans and animals and jump rapidly to the source to feed on the newly found host. The flea is wingless so it can not fly, but it can jump long distances with the help of small, powerful legs.