Question of the Day

These are operculated fluke eggs (Fasciola hepatica), but the cause of sudden death was more likely to have been infectious necrotic hepatitis (black disease, Clostridium novyii).

Carrier animals contaminate pasture with feces. C. novyii multiplies in areas of liver necrosis caused by young liver fluke migration.

Animals may be found dead without prior clinical signs or present in acute severe liver failure. 

Most cases of fascioliasis in cattle are chronic (sometimes subclinical) and not fatal. Sheep, however, can die of acute fasicoliasis. 

Image courtesy of the CDC-DPDx Parasite Image Library, Fascioliasis.