A Parasite to Keep Your 'Eye' On...

     Since you are reading this right now, you are one lucky individual who has not been infected by the terrible parasite Onchocerca volvulus. This parasite causes the disease of Onchocerciasis, or more commonly known as “river blindness”. This disease is transmitted through the little black fly, which lives in geographic areas with fast, rushing water, most commonly found in Africa. These flies are not your typical pests that land on your sandwiches while at a summer barbeque, such as the pesky Tabanus longiglossus, commonly known as the horsefly, but rather can carry parasites that can be life threatening to humans!

What does “Onchocerca volvulus” even mean?
     The word Onchocerca is a latin word meaning “genus of worms,” while volvulus comes from the latin word that means “twisting an intestine causing destruction to the body.” Both of these words put together make a deadly combination that affects more than 37 million people worldwide (Globish et al. 2013).
     This parasite carrying pest looks much like your everyday fly: beady eyes, transparent wings, and bodies that make you want to swing your fly swatter. People living in tropical areas are the people in the most contact with this parasite. With that being said, doesn’t that want to make you learn more about this interesting parasite? Click on the tabs above to get started! Come on, what are you waiting for? We have included the habitat, function, life cycle, reproduction process, interactions with other species, and many more cool facts about this parasite that you can’t help but get excited about! Check it out!

             To learn even more about this awesome parasite continue to the next tab, Classification!

Our webpage is a part of a bigger page called MultipleOrganisms. Check it out to learn more about many different, interesting organisms!

This site was created by Abbey Schwaab and Abby Waters, both students of Organimal Biology 203 at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. To learn a little more about these students, vist the contact page.