- Trichuris
- A genus of aphasmid nematodes (sometimes improperly termed Trichocephalus) related to the trichina worm, Trichinella spiralis, and having a body with a slender, elongated, anterior portion threaded into the mucosa of the colon or large intestine of the host and a thick posterior portion bearing reproductive organs and their products. T. contains about 70 species, all in mammals. [tricho- + G. oura, tail]- T. trichiura the whipworm of humans, a species that causes trichuriasis; the body is filiform and slender in the anterior three-fifths, and more robust posteriorly; females are 4 or 5 cm long, males are shorter (with coiled caudal extremity and a single eversible spicule); eggs are barrel-shaped, 50–56 μm by 20–22 μm, with double shell and translucent knobs at each of the two poles; humans are the only susceptible hosts and usually acquire infection by direct finger-to-mouth contact or by ingestion of soil, water, or food that contains larvated eggs (development in the soil takes 3–6 weeks under proper conditions of warmth and moisture, hence distribution is chiefly tropical); larvae escape from eggs in the ileum, mature in approximately a month, and then pass directly into the cecum without undergoing a parenteral migration as occurs with Ascaris lumbricoides; adults may persist for 2–7 years.- T. vulpis a nematode species found in the dog; the sexually mature adult has been found in the human appendix.
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Trich·u·ris trik-'yu̇r-əs n the type genus of the family Trichuridae of nematode worms comprising the whipworms* * *
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Tri·chu·ris (trĭ-kuґris) [tricho- + Gr. oura a tail] the whipworms, a genus of nematodes of the family Trichuridae; several species parasitize the intestines of mammals.
Medical dictionary. 2011.
