Tapeworm Detected In Alaskan-Caught Pink Salmon

Here’s a disturbing report from the Centers For Disease Control about  Alaskan-caught pink salmon that contained a dangerous tapeworm (which can do damage if you eat raw fish:

Abstract

Diphyllobothriosis is reemerging because of global importation and increased popularity of eating raw fish. We detected Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense plerocercoids in the musculature of wild pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) from Alaska, USA. Therefore, salmon from the American and Asian Pacific coasts and elsewhere pose potential dangers for persons who eat these fish raw.

In July 2013, we examined 64 wild Pacific salmon of 5 species:1 chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha), 1 coho salmon (O. kisutch), 23 pink salmon, 8 rainbow trout (O. mykiss), and 31 sockeye salmon in south-central Alaska, USA. The salmon were collected by angling (under permit no. SF2013–218) or obtained from local fishermen. The musculature was filleted to narrow slices, and internal organs were observed under a magnifying glass. Several morphotypes of diphyllobothriid plerocercoids were found, including a single larva in the musculature of pink salmon collected in Resurrection Creek (near Hope, Alaska). This plerocercoid, which was later identified as that of the D. nihonkaiense tapeworm, was found unencysted, deep in the musculature of the anterior part of the fish, near the spinal cord (Figure). It was highly motile, had a retracting scolex, and was 8–15 mm long, depending on the state of elongation or contraction (Figure; Video). After fixation with hot water, the plerocercoid was 10 mm long, had an elongate scolex 1.05 mm long and 0.60 mm wide, and possessed 2 narrow bothria opened on the apical end (Figure). The sequences of the cox1 and 28S rRNA genes (lsrDNA) were almost identical to those of the Japanese broad tapeworm available in the GenBank database (sequence similarities of 99% [GenBank accession no. KY000483] and 100% [KY000484], respectively), thus providing unequivocal support that this plerocercoid was a larva of the D. nihonkaiense tapeworm reported from North America.