THE LIFE-HLSTHEY UF THE AFRICAX SHEEP AND 

 CATTLE FLUKE. FASCIOLA GIGAMICA. 



By A^-^-IE Porteu, D.Sc, F.L.S.. F.R.S. (S.A.), 



Parasifologist, SoritJi African Institute for Medical Research, 

 Johanneshurg ; formerhj Beit Memorial Research Fellow. 



Read Julii 15. 1920. 



The occurrence of liver flukes in cattle and sheep has 

 been known for many years, especially in Europe. In South 

 Africa fluke infection of stock was also known, but it seems to 

 have been generally accepted that one fluke only, Fasciola 

 hepatica, the common European sheep and cattle fluke, was 

 present. Liver fluke disease, or " liver rot." becomes a disease 

 of importance economically when its action is accelerated by 

 such a condition as malnutrition due to droughts, or cold and 

 wet" seasons. However, the eradication of fluke disease is 

 possible, if the means by which the animals contract the 

 parasites is known. 



It is well known that the larval stages of many flukes are 

 passed in snails. In South Africa two problems arose, namely, 

 whether more than one species of liver fluke occurred and what 

 was the transmitting mollusc. During my early investiga- 

 tions of larval flukes found in fresh-water molluscs suspected 

 of transmitting bilharziasis to man, I soon concluded that 

 several groups, as well as genera and species, of Trematoda 

 were present in two of the commoner South African molluscs, 

 Physopsis africana and Limnaea natalensis; for example. 

 Schistosomes, Echinostomes, Monostomes and strict Distomes 

 were all represented. I have also examined grass and other 

 vegetation from the banks of streams and ponds, and have 

 found the minute encysted larval flukes thereon. By^ experi- 

 mental work, using natural methods of infection. I have had 

 'the good fortune to elucidate, for the first time, the life-histories 

 of several of these organisms, among them being that of the 

 long, narrow African sheep and cattle fluke. Fasciola 

 gifiantica. This fluke is probably the indigenous cattle fluke 

 of South Africa. I may mention that my results were com- 

 municated and specimens exhibited to the Veterinary Research 

 Department at Onderstepoort in the latter part of 1919. and 

 were demonstrated, together with the life-histories of the 

 human bilharzial flukes and certain frog flukes, before the 

 Witwatersrand Branch of the British Medical Association on 

 December 18, 1919. A short account was published in the 

 Medical. Journal of South Africa, vol. xv, pp. 128-133, January. 

 1920. An exhibit was also given before the Roval Societv of 

 South Africa on March IT. 1920. 



