paratenic host

Related to paratenic host: reservoir host, accidental host


1. an animal or plant that harbors and provides sustenance for another organism (the parasite).
2. the recipient of an organ or other tissue derived from another organism (the donor).
accidental host one that accidentally harbors an organism that is not ordinarily parasitic in the particular species.
definitive host (final host) a host in which a parasite attains sexual maturity.
intermediate host a host in which a parasite passes one or more of its asexual stages; usually designated first and second, if there is more than one.
paratenic host a potential or substitute intermediate host that serves until the appropriate definitive host is reached, and in which no development of the parasite occurs; it may or may not be necessary to the completion of the parasite's life cycle.
host of predilection the host preferred by a parasite.
primary host definitive host.
reservoir host an animal (or species) that is infected by a parasite, and which serves as a source of infection for humans or another species.
secondary host intermediate host.
transfer host one that is used until the appropriate definitive host is reached, but is not necessary to completion of the life cycle of the parasite.

par·a·ten·ic host

an intermediate host in which no development of the parasite occurs, although its presence may be required as an essential link in the completion of the parasite's life cycle; for example, the successive fish hosts that carry the plerocercoid of Diphyllobothrium latum, the broad fish tapeworm, to larger food fish eventually eaten by humans or other final hosts.
Synonym(s): transport host

paratenic host

An organism that plays a role in a parasite's life cycle, as by harboring its unhatched eggs, but in or on which no development of the parasite occurs.

paratenic host

an animal acting as a substitute intermediate host of a parasite, usually having acquired the parasite by ingestion of the original host; no development of the parasite takes place but the phenomenon aids in the transmission of infection. Called also transfer or transport host.
References in periodicals archive ?
lutrae is transmitted to river otters through ingestion of contaminated water or a paratenic host, but there is not the seasonal infection rate because of the river otter's year-round food habits.
Ward and Whipple (1918) state that an acridid is also a developmental host, while mosquito larvae served as experimental paratenic hosts in studies by Poinar and Doelman (1974).
insignislarvae in their tissues for 7-11 days, demonstrating the need for further experimental and field work on the role of fish as paratenic hosts for Dracunculus spp.
These data do not address whether all transmission occurring in humans and dogs in Chad are a result of consumption of a paratenic host, such as a frog, but the peculiar epidemiology of D.
These potential paratenic hosts were then fed to an experimental definitive host (a domestic ferret) to determine if any third-stage larvae (L3) present would undergo further development in ferrets.
Contaminated vegetables and paratenic hosts such as freshwater prawns, crabs, and frogs may also play a role in transmission (1).
6] Land snails and slugs are intermediate hosts and human infections occur when these infected molluscs, or paratenic hosts such as frogs and lizards, are ingested, usually accidentally.
the ant--which corresponds to the developmental host--becomes infected by eating paratenic hosts containing infective stages of the mermithid.
Logistic regression, combined with other observations or data, may be a useful method for the prediction of intermediate and/or paratenic hosts of poorly known parasites when the definitive host has had ample dietary analysis performed.