Morphological variability in Fasciola hepatica eggs in ruminants, rodents and lagomorphs

The length and width of 1297 Fasciola hepatica eggs shed in cattle hosts, 337 in sheep and 199 in nutria, were measured from several parts of France. The data were compared with those obtained from other studies in Spain, France (where rats were also investigated), Germany and the Netherlands. One way analysis of variance and discriminant analysis were used to assess differences between host origins. The distribution of length and width of eggs were analysed using skewness and kurtosis Fisher coefficients. The eggs recovered from sheep, cattle, rodents and lagomorphs were different in size: the eggs found in rodents (length L x width W in microm: 8592) and lagomorphs (L x W in microm: 9100) were smaller than those found in sheep and cattle (L x W in microm: 10,000). These morphological differences in F. hepatica eggs were host-induced in rats (L x W in microM: 9709 in cattle to 8949 in rats) and rabbits (L x W in microm: 9709 in cattle to 8432 in rabbits). These differences in size of eggs might correspond to their being less able to develop into miracidia in less frequent hosts such as rodents and rabbits.