Ingestion
Ingestion is the consumption of a substance by an
Besides nutritional items, substances that may be ingested include medication (where ingestion is termed oral administration), recreational drugs, and substances considered inedible, such as foreign bodies or excrement. Ingestion is a common route taken by pathogenic organisms and poisons entering the body.
Ingestion can also refer to a mechanism picking up something and making it enter an internal hollow of that mechanism, e.g. "a grille was fitted to prevent the pump from ingesting driftwood".
Pathogens
Some
Some pathogenic organisms are typically ingested by other routes.
- Larvae of the parasite Trichinella encyst within muscles and are transmitted when a new host eats the infected flesh of a former host animal.[1]
- The parasite Dracunculus is ingested in drinking water, which is contaminated with larvae released as the parasite emerges from the host's skin.[2]
- The bacterium eggs.[3]
Foreign objects
Abnormal ingestion
Pica is an abnormal appetite for non-nutritive objects or for food items in a form not normally eaten, such as flour. Coprophagia is the consumption of feces, an abnormal ingestive behavior common in some animals.
References
- ^ "Trichinellosis". Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. 2004. Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- ^ "Dracunculiasis". Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- PMID 15705332.
- ^ "Battery Ingestion". eMedicineHealth.com. August 10, 2005. Retrieved 2007-04-15.