Alaria alata

General Information

• 1. Name: Latin: ala = wing; alaris = belonging to the wing.

• 2. Geographic distribution/epidemiology: Worldwide, especially in regions with wild dogs, foxes, wolves, and martens. Prevalences of Alaria species in dogs in the USA (A. canis, A. americana) and in foxes in Germany are up to 30 %.

• 3. Morphology/life cycle: The life cycle is diagrammatically represented in Fig. 1. It runs similarly in the different species: A. canis (syn. A. americana), A. mustelae (marten), and A. marcianae(cats). The hermaphroditic adult worms, which belong to the digenetic trematodes of the family Diplostomatidae, reach a size of 2.5–6 mm × 0.5–2 mm and live in the intestine mainly of wild canids. Their brownish eggs, which measure 98–125 μm × 62–81 μm, possess an operculum, but do not contain a miracidium, when they are excreted in feces. The latter develops inside the egg outside of its host, when the egg reached water. Two intermediate host types become involved as can be seen in...