NAVTA Approved Veterinary Assistant (AVA) Practice Exam

The statement is false because ticks do not initiate the life cycle of tapeworms. Tapeworms are intestinal parasites that require specific intermediate hosts such as fleas or rodents to complete their life cycles. Ticks are arachnids that primarily feed on blood and are vectors for various diseases but do not play a role in the transmission or life cycle of tapeworms.

In the case of tapeworms, the common pathway involves fleas, which serve as the intermediate hosts for certain species of tapeworms, such as Dipylidium caninum. When a dog or cat ingests a flea carrying tapeworm eggs, the eggs can then develop into adult tapeworms in the host's intestinal tract.

The other options, while they introduce additional factors, do not accurately reflect the relationship between ticks and tapeworms. Thus, the statement stands that ticks do not begin the life cycle of the tapeworm.