Biology
Life cycle of the liver fluke
The Fasciola’s parasitic lifestyle is a wonder of evolution bringing together two animals – a mammal and a freshwater snail.
Adult liver flukes are hermaphrodite, producing numerous eggs each day that pass out from the body in faeces.
Eggs later hatch releasing a free-swimming larva which seeks out and penetrates the freshwater snail. Inside the snail the parasite develops then later bursts out from snail tissues to encyst on vegetation later grazed by animals.