MORPHOLOGY OF GIARDIA SPECIES:

Genus: Giardia

Species: lamblia or intestinalis or duodanalis

(First observed by Leeuwenhoek in 1681 and named after French biologist Alfred Giard)

Giardia lamblia is a flagellated protozoan parasite that colonies in the small intestine. It attaches to the
intestinal epithelial by its ventral adhesive disc and reproduce via binary fission.

Morphology:

Giardia lamblia exists in two morphological forms;

1) Tropozoites &
2) Cysts

1) Tropozoites:
The tropozoites of Giardia lamblia is heart shaped ( or variously described as pear shaped, tear drop
shaped, racket shaped, monkey faced, clown faced, moustache, etc) in its frontal view and has a broad
anterior end and tapering posterior end.
The dorsal surface is convex while the ventral surface is concave.
Size: (9-2) length μm× (5-15) breadth μm× 4 thicker μm.
One half of the anterior-ventral surface is covered with a bi-lobed adhesive/sucking disc which acts as an
organ of attachment.
Two axostyles run along the midline (formed from proximal region of flagella) and two median bodies
(fibrils) lie posterior to the adhesive disc.
The adhesive disc is made of micro-tubes which contain a protein called giardin. The tropozoites
may be found attached to the duodenum and jejunum of the infected host.

2) Cysts;
Cyst is the infective stage of parasite.
It is oval /ellipsoidal in shape and measures (8-12) μm × (7-10) μm and surrounded by a hyaline cyst wall.
The cyst contains fine granular cytoplasm which is separated from cyst wall by a clear space (halo-effect).
Immature cyst possesses two and mature cyst possesses four nuclei with small karyosome. The cyst also
contains axostyles and median bodies. In mature cyst (after encystations) the organelles duplicate so that
each cyst contains 4 nuclei, 4 median bodies, 8 pairs of flagella although these organelles are not arranged
in a clear pattern. Each cyst produces two tropozoites after excystation.