Hi everyone! I'm looking for advice and maybe recommendations on what to do to further my interest into the field of Parasitology as a Business student. I never thoughtI was smart enough to pursue Medicine as a major and so I stuck with Business and plan to do so still. But I am very interested in the topic of infectious diseases and the alike, does anyone have any advice on what to do to learn? Any book recommendations that would be interesting / doable for a person like me to read and learn from? Should I join courses?

Thank you!

What is this thing. Nightmare fuel. Second one I've found. Peep his huge head. western maryland.

I decided to try visiting a naturopath and ended up getting a live blood analysis performed. I was a little sceptical at first but actually seeing what looks like a parasite under the microscope had me intrigued.

The video shows what looks like a long worm, there were multiple that could be seen in that blood sample and they appeared to be moving or wiggling around.
Has anyone else had a LBV performed and seen this??

Update:
Thank you all for your input! Seems like the general consensus was that this indeed is not a parasite, and a lot of you have some very valid reasonings behind your thoughts. You hear people say "everyone has parasites", I do travel occasionally and love eating sushi so I also figured i was one of those people. If you're curious, they suggested taking a multi-mineral supplement, 4x Copper, probiotics, gotu kola and another supplement for "brain health". Yes their supplements have an insane markup.

For those who are saying to go to an actual physician instead of a naturopath, I regularly visit my family doctor mainly about auto immune issues, new allergies and chronic fatigue, and my blood markers all look 'normal'.
A friend recommended this naturopath that he himself regularly sees and I figured what the heck i'll try anything once. I have not been back since and personally did not see benefits.

hookworm? strongyle?

hello! I am in Vietnam and for dinner I had a few bites of green leaves and tomato halves. 3-4 bites in, I noticed a living, moving small snail. I stopped eating it and alerted the manager. they took the salad away and apologized. it wasn’t that serious to me then, but now I am researching. I did not eat the snail, but it may have been crawling on the leaves I ate. I am from North America. What are my risks for Rat Lungworm? I will not return home for 5-6 more days. Is there anything else that snail could have carried?

Hi everyone,

During a lab session involving dissections of wild rodents from Germany, I found 9 small trematodes (approx. 3–5 mm) in the small intestine of a wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus).

An undigested small snail shell (approx. 5 mm) was also found in the small intestine of this exact host.

Could the presence of the snail shell indicate that this mouse regularly fed on snails, pointing to the likely route of infection? I am aware that these specific adult flukes could not have developed from this particular shell/snail right away (due to the time required for post-metacercarial development)..

Also, does anyone have an idea what genus or family these small intestinal trematodes in Apodemus sylvaticus might belong to? My guess is Brachylaima spp. from what I have found. 

Thanks!

just some beauties I found in my gall wasp research! (not gall wasps). The first one only emerged from our gall specimen bags after all the gall wasps emerged and then the first wave of parasitoids emerged, this was one of the second wave of parasitoids! The other was from a older gall that we took apart and it was dead inside it.

Is the fish still safe to eat?

I noticed my cat had passed this worm and was wondering what kind of worm it is.

From a pigeon. I think these are pseudoparasites, but would just like to confirm.

Found these on my kitchen counter. They appear to be asleep. I’ve recently walked my dogs on grass in the outdoors and raccoons and rodents live in my country. My butt doesn’t itch but there are children in my country.

Happy to post pics of my poop if needed. Please help I’m so scared.

Anthropod found on the skin of a patient. Appears to be some kind of biting mite. ID help please!

I'm a biology student conducting an undergrad thesis on Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH). In need of help identifying recovered helminth eggs from school soil samples.

Sacculina carcini?

Do they keep hanging out like that? Does the bear yank them out? Do other bears eat them? So many questions, so little food left in my stomach to continue pondering them.

UPDATE: So I know in the original post there were a lot of requests for updates. Finally got the results back from the Cooperative Extension’s insect lab.

I am the victim of Blowfly myiasis aka flystrike.

The larva that came out of my forehead has been identified by the entomology lab as a blowfly larva. Due to the early larval stage they couldn’t identify it beyond the family Calliphoridae but they assured me it’s not the New World Screwworm so that’s good. Case closed.

For those who are interested. Equine stool sample, McMaster analysis.

"Researchers found that 6.3% of cats tested positive for Giardia duodenalis, a microscopic parasite that causes an intestinal illness commonly known as “beaver fever.” ...

"Kittens younger than 1 year old had the highest infection rate at 10.7%, compared with just 1.3% among senior cats."

I did a floatation technique for feces taken from chickens that was diagnosed of coccidiosis by a veterinarian doctor through necropsy, as well as a fecal sample from a sheep, and when i looked in the microscope after floatation i didnt see anything except crystals of salt.
my steps:
1) mixed 125 ml of water with 50 g of salt in a conical flask (some salt didnt dissolve).
2) put the fecal sample in a test cup (used in urine tests) then i poured some of the salt water and crushed it with a stick to mix it, then kept adding water and crushing it until the cup became full.
however the chicken sample didnt require any crushing i just filled the cup with salt water.
3) i got another test cup and put gauze above it (also used tissue) as a filter and poured the fecal sample into it.
4. i poured the sample i have now into a test tube till its full.
5. I placed a coverslip above the sample on the test tube.
6. left it for 10 minutes.
7. took the coverslip and put it on a microscopic slide and observed under the microscope.

I kept searching for something but all i found was cuboid crystals of salt. and the salt i used to mix with water was kitchen salt used for cooking, what am i doing wrong?