Metacercariae in fishes of Sun Moon lake which is an endemic area for Clonorchis sinensis in Taiwan.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1997-03-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The Sun Moon lake in Central Taiwan is a known endemic area for clonorchiasis. Of the 45 fresh water fish, Hemiculter leucisculus, from the lake that were examined by artificial gastric juice digestion in October 1995, all were found to harbor metacercariae in their muscle. The number of metacercariae isolated from each fish ranged from 2 to 2,185, with an average of 254. A total of 11,443 metacercariae was collected from the 45 fish. Of the 4,223 metacercaria that were examined under light microscope, 4,064 (96.23%) were found to belong to Haplorchis taichui, 90(2.13%) to H. pumilio, 2(0.05%) to C. sinensis and 67 (1.59%) to unknown species due to the metacercariae being not yet developed or immature. The 2 C. sinensis metacercariae were obtained from 2 out of 45 fish examined. Our results contrast with reports of a decade ago which stated that all the fish of the Sun Moon lake examined were positive for C. sinensis. Possible reasons for the decrease of C. sinensis metacercariae are the disappearance of pig farms around the lake, increased awareness of the trematode by the lakeside inhabitants and probably the exclusive use of mammals as its definitive host by C. sinensis. In contrast, besides mammals, Haplorchis spp also use birds as their definitive hosts.
Description
The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health.
Keywords
Citation
Ooi HK, Chen CI, Lin SC, Tung KC, Wang JS, Kamiya M. Metacercariae in fishes of Sun Moon lake which is an endemic area for Clonorchis sinensis in Taiwan. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health. 1997 ; 28 Suppl 1(): 222-3