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The Giant Thorny-Headed Worm of Swine

By ucwehlc, on 20 October 2023

The Grant Museum is currently closed for refurbishment works until the new year, but we still have plenty of exciting stories to tell from the collection.

Today’s blog is by visiting researchers Dr Andrew McCarthy and Dr Jennie C. Litten-Brown from Canterbury College, UK, who have been looking into some of the parasites in our collection. This week we meet the Giant Thorny-Headed Worm of Swine, Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus (Acanthocephala: Oligacanthorhynchidae), a parasite that causes disease in both pigs and humans, that you will be able to see on display when we re-open.

The Giant Thorny-Headed Worm of Swine

Parasitism is probably the most common life strategy on Earth. Parasites are known to be important factors in maintaining ecosystem health, and the relatively new discipline of Parasite Conservation is devoted to preventing the extinction of endangered parasite species. However, several parasites cause serious disease in both humans and livestock. With increasing trends in more ethical farming methods such as Wild Farming, (often associated with rare breeds conservation), where livestock come into close contact with the natural environment, an awareness of potential pathogenic parasites is important. Specimens of one such parasite, an acanthocephalan, may be found in the Grant Museum of Zoology.

Acanthocephalans, commonly known as the “Thorny-Headed Worms” are a group of parasites typically under-represented in museum collections. Members of the group are known to cause a disease, acanthocephaliasis, in their vertebrate hosts, and some are of both veterinary and medical importance. The Grant Museum of Zoology has in its collection both fluid preserved adult worms (specimens LDUCZ-F21, F22 & F23), and Rudolf Weisker wax teaching model specimens c.1884 (LDCUZ-F26 & F84), of one of the largest acanthocephalans known to science. It goes by the rather dramatic common name of the “Giant Thorny-Headed Worm of Swine”, Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus. It may be described as a neglected parasite upon which relatively little research has been carried out. Its scientific name refers to the large, thorned proboscis (see Fig. 1), and the leech-like (“hirudo”) nature of its body (see Fig.2 ).

Black and white electron microscope image of the head of a thorny-headed worm showing rows of hooked spines

Fig. 1. The Parasite: Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus.
Scanning Electron Micrograph of the proboscis bearing thorns.
(© Migliore et al. (2021) )

 

Adult thorny-headed worm on a black background. The worm is a pale pink-beige colour and is curled in loops. It lies next to a ruler that shows it is 10cm long while curled up.

Fig. 2. The Parasite: Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus. Entire worm from intestine of pig.
(CDC, Public Domain via Wiki Commons)

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Specimen of the Week 334: The Tapeworm (feat. the sheep brain)

By Jack Ashby, on 16 March 2018

This week’s Specimen of the Week is a guest edition by Front of House Volunteer and a UCL Masters student of Human Evolution and Behaviour, Adam Cogan.

A sheep's brain disected to reveal a tapework cyst. LDUCZ-D60

A sheep’s brain disected to reveal a large tapeworm cyst. LDUCZ-D60

If by now 2018 is giving you a bit of a headache, then this week’s Specimen of the Week may make you feel a bit better! Today our guest (and host, I suppose) is… (more…)

Specimen of the Week 188: Spirorbis worms

By Mark Carnall, on 18 May 2015

Close up of LDUCZ G105 Spirorbis preserved in fluid

LDUCZ-G105 Care to guess what it is. A sea pen, barnacles?

If you check our specimen of the week widget, where you can see all past specimens of the weeks the vertebrates, in particular mammals, still dominate despite being a comparatively small group of animals. This week I’m going to focus attention on a far less furry or ferocious invertebrate animal because let’s face it they just don’t get the PR the Hollywood Animals do.

If you ever whiled away an afternoon at the beach rockpooling, you’ve undoubtedly come across these animals but may not have noticed or recognised them.

This week’s specimen of the week is… (more…)

Specimen of the Week: Week 138

By Stacy Hackner, on 2 June 2014

Scary MonkeyThis week’s specimen is another invertebrate. As a bone researcher filling at the front desk, invertebrates don’t usually hold my attention (they lack bones, you see), but I make an exception for this unassuming annelid-like sea creature. This Specimen of the Week is a wet specimen, greyish in color, with what looks like an eye near its mouth, which means it’s a… (more…)