What does fascioliasis mean?
Fascioliasis is a parasitic disease caused by infection with liver flukes, most commonly Fasciola hepatica, the sheep liver fluke, or its tropical relative Fasciola gigantica. The parasite lodges in the bile ducts of the liver, causing fever, abdominal pain, and, in long-standing cases, damage to liver tissue and bile ducts. People typically become infected by eating raw aquatic plants such as watercress that carry the fluke's larval stage, often after contact with contaminated water in areas where sheep or cattle graze. The word is technical, appearing chiefly in medical, veterinary, and public-health writing; farmers may know the condition in livestock as 'liver rot'. Because it is preventable through simple food hygiene and treatable with antiparasitic drugs such as triclabendazole, fascioliasis remains a useful term for anyone interested in food safety, global health, or rural veterinary practice.
nounFascioliasis is an infectious disease of humans and livestock caused by parasitic flatworms known as liver flukes, chiefly Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica. It primarily affects the liver and bile ducts.
- A parasitic infection of humans and animals caused by liver flukes of the genus Fasciola, especially Fasciola hepatica or Fasciola gigantica, affecting the liver and bile ducts.
"The sheep farmer lost several animals to fascioliasis after an unusually wet spring."
"Health officials traced the outbreak of human fascioliasis to wild watercress gathered from an unfenced stream."
"Veterinary screening confirmed fascioliasis in the dairy herd, prompting treatment of all grazing cattle."
Rarely used; like most disease names ending in -iasis, the singular is standard even when referring to multiple cases, which are described individually.
"Both patients were diagnosed with fascioliasis after eating contaminated watercress."
Humans usually catch fascioliasis not from other people but by eating wild watercress growing where infected livestock have grazed nearby.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fascioliasis
The term fascioliasis derives from Fasciola, the scientific genus name of the liver flukes that cause the disease. Fasciola itself comes from Latin fasciola, meaning 'a small bandage' or narrow band, a diminutive of fascia ('band, bandage'); the fluke was given this name on account of its slender, band-like shape. The suffix '-iasis', borrowed ultimately from Greek, denotes a pathological condition or diseased state and is widely used to name infestations and infections, as in myiasis and psoriasis.
How fascioliasis is actually used
Fascioliasis is a technical term used mainly in medicine, veterinary science, and parasitology; general readers are more likely to encounter 'liver fluke infection'. In veterinary contexts, especially regarding sheep, the traditional English name 'liver rot' is also used. The plural form refers simply to multiple cases of the disease, not to multiple distinct conditions.
Easily confused with fascioliasis
Fasciolopsiasis is infection with the related giant intestinal fluke Fasciolopsis buski, which inhabits the intestines rather than the liver and bile ducts targeted in fascioliasis.