Japanese Tapeworm Threatens Sushi Lovers

Experts found a type of Japanese tapeworm in US salmon.

Americans who enjoy eating raw or undercooked fish should be careful because they can become infected with the Japanese broad tapeworm.

Known as the Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense, this species is a digestive tract-invading parasite which can cause a lot of damage. Although most scientists believed that the Japanese tapeworm lives just in Asia, recent research has shown that it has infected US salmon as well.

CDC experts announced that the samples from numerous wild Alaskan salmon tested positive for the Japanese broad tapeworm larvae. As such, the biologists stress that those who catch salmon along the North American Pacific coast should be extremely careful because the fish is most likely infected.

Back in 1986, the researchers discovered this parasite, and concluded that it caused roughly 2,000 infections, making it the 2^ndmost prevalent type of infection caused by a species of tapeworm.

The scientists later discovered that the parasite is more dangerous than they had thought. More precisely, most of the infections occurring in Russia, South Korea, and Japan were caused by the Japanese broad tapeworm.

In other words, this species of tapeworm is the most dangerous. Three years ago, a team of wildlife biologists caught 64 wild salmon in Alaska and analyzed them. They found out that the fish were infected with larvae between eight and 15 mm long.

After lab testing, they established that the larvae were Japanese tapeworms. According to the study findings, there are four types of Pacific salmon which can carry Japanese tapeworm larvae, such as sockeye salmon, pink salmon, masu salmon, and chum salmon.

Also, these species arrive in many restaurants worldwide, so they might occur even in Europe. It is worth mentioning that those who become infected usually experience no symptoms. Just some of them can suffer abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and weight loss.

In the worst-case scenario, this parasite can cause more violent symptoms such as painful bile ducts inflammation and intestinal obstruction. This parasite can grow up to 30 feet long, and it consumes a lot of vitamin B12.

In time, vitamin B12 deficiency can have a detrimental effect on the brain affecting cognitive abilities and memory. Fortunately, tapeworm infections are very rare across the United States, but CDC officials urge citizens to be aware of the risks of consuming undercooked or raw fish.

Image Source:Pixabay

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Karen Jackson

Karen Jackson has always been passionate about technology. All the way through high-school she immersed herself in computers and web-design. Her ambitious nature helped her become a pro in Adobe Photoshop only by watching online videos and working with the program herself. This is also the program that she mostly uses in the creation of websites at her work-place. Technological innovation and gadgets that push the boundaries of what we are comfortable with have always fascinated her, so expect to see some weird gadget reviews coming from her.