ABSTRACT
The family Heterophyidae comprises several genera and species of almost worldwide distribution. They are all small, oval, or pyriform flukes living in the intestine of fish-eating birds and mammals, including man. Adult heterophyids, usually occurring in large numbers, inhabit the middle part of the intestine of their mammalian hosts, attached to, or embedded in, the intestinal mucosa. Heterophyid flukes are of world-wide distribution. Heterophyes heterophyes (von Siebold, 1852) Stiles and Hassall, 1900 is a minute, elongate pyriform fluke, measuring 1 to 1.7 mm in length and 0.3 to 0.4 mm in width. The eggs of heterophyid flukes are operculate ovoid and light-brown in color. Heterophyid flukes live attached to the intestinal mucosa or are embedded deep among the villi. The anthelmintic drugs Filix mas, tetrachloroethylene, carbon tetrachloride, oil of chenopodium, and oleoresin of aspidium have early been used to expel heterophyid flukes.
