1. Ancylostoma duodenale, commonly known as the old world hookworm, is a parasitic nematode that infects the small intestine.
2. It has a complex life cycle involving eggs passed in feces that develop into infective larvae in soil, which penetrate the skin and migrate through the lungs before reaching the small intestine where they mature into adults.
3. Infection causes hookworm disease, also called ancylostomiasis, resulting in iron-deficiency anemia due to blood loss from the intestinal mucosa where the worms attach.