The fish tapeworm is a parasite. It is about 20 meters long with 3000 to 4000 proglottids, which are segments that each form an adult sexually reproductive system. The Skolex, the front end, serves to attach itself to the host’s intestine. The fish tapeworm has two elongated suction cups. Its eggs are colored yellow and about 45 x 70 µm in size.
contents
- distribution
- The life cycle
- Landlord: Rudder foot cancer
- The larvae mature in the fish
- There are usually no symptoms
- diagnosis
- treatment
- Danger in Germany?
- How do you protect yourself?
- Danger from sushi?
distribution
The fish tapeworm occurs mainly in subtropical, temperate and subarctic zones, and there in the area of lakes. It is particularly common in North America, Siberia, Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Japan and Chile. Inuit in Alaska and Northern Canada very often contract this tapeworm. Raw fish is the main food for those affected. In Japan, and now also in the USA and Europe, the consumption of sushi is the main reason to ingest such a tapeworm .
Eating sushi is one of the most common causes of fish tapeworm infection. (Image: yuliiaholovchenko / fotolia.com)
The infestation with fish tapeworms can be triggered in Europe and North America by one of the following types, the symptoms are largely identical:
- Diphyllobothrium latum in Europe, especially on the Iberian Peninsula
- Diphyllobothrium dendriticum
- Diphyllobothrium ditremum
The life cycle
Humans become infected with the parasite by eating raw or underheated fish. The fish tapeworm is not specialized in humans as hosts: all mammals that eat fish can be infected by it. Amongst the domestic animals, these are primarily dogs and cats, sled dogs in the subarctic, which mainly feed on fish waste, are particularly affected.
Landlord: Rudder foot cancer
The proglottids contain eggs, and these worm eggs excrete the fish eaters with their faeces. If the excrement gets into the water cycle, it contaminates the water, and the eggs grow into the coracidia, eyelashed larvae.
These use small crabs of the genera Cyclops and Diaptomus as the first intermediate hosts. Fish eat these crabs, then the fish serve as second intermediate hosts. Often they are carp-like and other plankton-eaters, sometimes also predatory fish like pike.
The larvae mature in the fish
In the muscles of the fish, the coracidia grow into pleroceroids, infectious larvae. If people eat these fish now, the infectious larvae enter the human small intestine, where they can live for several years. The feces contain the first eggs 3 weeks after the infection. The worm excretes these eggs over the last segment.
The worm grows by 9 to 15 cm a day.
Those affected often do not even notice that they have contracted a fish tapeworm. Symptoms such as diarrhea only appear in cases of severe infestation. (Image: Juan Gärtner / fotolia.com)
There are usually no symptoms
Those affected often do not notice anything about the worm infestation because there are usually no symptoms. Only with a large number of tapeworm segments in the body can diarrhea occur, or the worm balls clog the bile duct or the intestinal lumen. If the worms get stuck in the upper small intestine, a vitamin B 12 deficiency can result.
The fish tapeworm absorbs more vitamin B 12, and the human body then lacks this when it forms the red blood cells. The result is a special anemia, pernicious anemia.
diagnosis
The eggs usually appear in bulk in the stool (up to a million a day) and are therefore easy to detect.
treatment
Worm infestation is easy to treat. 90% of patients completely recover if they take the praziquantel worm once. Since usually only one tapeworm of these species affects a person, the detection of the Skolex in the faeces is evidence that the parasite has died.
Danger in Germany?
Local fish rarely carry the fish tapeworm in them. Imported fish from Northwest Russia, the Baltic States and Scandinavia are at higher risk of becoming infected. Tourists are particularly at risk if they eat the popular raw fish dishes in Scandinavia or the Baltic States, Japan or South America.
In North America and Switzerland, fish tapeworms were infected by sushi fashion.
How do you protect yourself?
Raw fish is only a problem if it comes from fresh water. Saltwater fish never carry the parasite in them. Boiled, smoked, fried and deep-frozen fish can be eaten without hesitation because the heat and cold kill the pathogen.
Fried or cooked fish is not a danger because the pathogens die from the heat. (Image: Oskar / fotolia.com)
Danger from sushi?
Veterinary examinations showed that in 70% of all sushi products there were no borderline germ levels. Before the preparation, this amount was even 83%, which meant that 13% of the germs got into the sushi during the preparation. The added washabi horseradish also has a disinfectant effect.
In Japan, however, due to the increased consumption of sushi, there are now several hundred registered cases of worm-induced diseases.
German legislation now stipulates that raw fish must be cooled to at least – 20 degrees Celsius at least 24 hours before it is consumed. That is enough to eliminate the tapeworm. In addition, sushi is often made from frozen fish anyway, almost exclusively in most sushi bars in Germany.
The freshwater carpaccio, which has been popular with gourmets for several years, poses a major problem, in which salmon, trout or pike are cut into thin slices. Since these are gourmet restaurants, guests are of course not served previously deep-frozen fish.
