Definitive host

A host in which a parasite reaches sexual maturity and reproduces sexually. It is distinguished from hosts that support only larval development or asexual reproduction.

Parasite: An organism that lives in or on another organism and gains resources at its host’s expense. A definitive host is defined by the stage a parasite completes within it.
Taenia saginata: A tapeworm species whose adults live in humans and whose larval cysts develop in cattle. Humans are its definitive hosts, while cattle serve as intermediate hosts.
Transmission cycle: The routes and stages by which an infectious agent passes among hosts or environments. Identifying the definitive host locates sexual reproduction within the transmission cycle.
Accidental host: A host species that a parasite infects outside its usual life cycle. An accidental host may not support the parasite’s normal sexual stage.
Parasite life cycle: The sequence of developmental stages and host transitions through which a parasite reproduces and persists. It shows where sexual maturity and reproduction occur among a parasite’s stages.
Taenia solium: A tapeworm species whose adult stage usually inhabits the human intestine and whose larval stage can develop in pigs or humans. Humans can be definitive hosts, but they can also harbor its larval stage.
Zoonosis: An infectious disease that can be transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. A definitive host may be an animal that sustains a parasite capable of infecting people.
Dead-end host: A host from which an infectious agent is not usually transmitted onward. A definitive host can reproduce a parasite even when a dead-end host cannot sustain transmission.
Sexual reproduction: Reproduction involving the production and fusion of gametes, or equivalent exchange of genetic material. Sexual reproduction is the event that identifies a definitive host.
Toxoplasma gondii: A protozoan parasite that reproduces sexually in felids and asexually in many warm-blooded animals. Felids are its definitive hosts because sexual reproduction occurs in their intestines.

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