Seroprevalence of the IgG antibodies for Clonorchis sinensis, Paragonimus westermani, Taenia solium metacestode (cysticercus), and Spirometra erinacei plerocercoid (sparganum) was measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in sera of patients in Korea from 1993 to 2006. A total of 74,448 specimens referred nationwide from 121 hospitals revealed an IgG positive rate of 7.6% for the...

We have reported that excretory/secretory (ES) products from Spirometra erinaceieuropaei plerocercoids suppress production and gene expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in murine macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide. The present study demonstrates that ES products suppress TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-1β and intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 gene expression in human monocytic...

Sparganosis is a parasitic infection in amphibians, reptiles and mammals including feral swine and man. It is caused by migration of the metacestode (spargana) of Spirometra. The primary objective of this study was the determination of the prevalence of gross sparganosis in Florida county of origin in slaughtered feral swine. Tracebacks to county of origin were conducted for Florida feral swine...

There is a wide variety of food products that may be contaminated with one or more parasites and consequently enabling transmission to human beings. The prevalence of specific parasites in food supplies varies between countries and regions. Sources of food-borne products contaminated with parasites are pigs, cattle, fish, crabs, crayfish, snails, frogs, snakes and aquatic plants. One of the maj...

We collected fecal samples from 500 dogs and 300 cats from an animal refuge in Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand to test for gastrointestinal protozoa and helminths using a formalin-ether concentration technique. The overall prevalence of parasites in stool from dogs was 36.2% (181/500), 35.7% (177/500) had helminths and 2.8% (14/500) had protozoa. The helminths were: hookworm (30.6%), Trichuris ...

Pseudophyllidea van Beneden in Carus, 1863, a well recognised order of tapeworms (Platyhelminthes: Eucestoda), is suppressed because it is composed of two phylogenetically unrelated groups, for which the new names Bothriocephalidea and Diphyllobothriidea are proposed. The new orders differ from each other in the following characters: (i) position of the genital pore: on the dorsal, dorso-latera...

The occurrence of waterborne parasites coupled with water parameters at various processing sites of two drinking water treatment plants (A and B) and seven distribution system (DS) sites in Sarawak, Malaysia were studied. Ten liters of water underwent immunomagnetic separation (IMS) technique to detect the presence of Giardia and Cryptosporidium (oo)cysts. The remaining supernatant was used to ...