• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.267-283
• /
• 2001

In endemic areas of Taenia tapeworms in Korea, most of the reports showed that T. saginata was dominant over T. solium, but eating pigs is the dominant habit over eating cattle. Why do they have more T saginata despite lower consumption of beef This problem actually has long been recognized but until recently there has been no intensive trial to give a scientific explanation on this epidemiological enigma. By summing up the data published between the years 1963 and 1999, the ratio of armed versus unarmed tapeworms in humans was estimated at approximately 1 :5. The ratio of pig-eaters versus cattle-eaters, however, was approximately 5: 1. This inconsistency could be explained with the recently described T. asiatica, which infects humans through the eating of pig's viscera. We re-evaluate the importance of the consumption of visceral organ of pigs, leading us to an improved epidemiological understanding of the T. asiatica infection together with co-existing T. saginata and T. solium in Korea.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 1993

Among taenited tapeworms inferting humans though pork or beef, Taenia solium Linnaeus 1758 and Taenia sagina Goeze 1782 have already been. Based on the morphologic characteristics of adult and metacestodes of Asian Taenia saginata, the third kind of human taeniid tapeworm konwn to disdute in Asian counteries, a new spscies name of Taenia asiatica is proposed. In addition to the known biology in their intermediate hosts, T.asiatica was diffierent morphologically from Taenia saginata Goeze 1782 in having the unarmed rostellum on the scolex of adlut, the large number of 'unterinetwigs' and the existence of 'posterior protuberance'. These structures in the gravid proglottids were used as taxonmic keys in taeniid tapeworms for the first time. T. asiatica metacestode (Cysticercus viscerotropica)was different morphologically from T. saginata metacestode (Cysticercus bovis) in having wartlike formations on external surface of the bladder wall.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.179-184
• /
• 2019

Sparganosis is a parasitic infestation caused by sparganum, a plerocercoid tapeworm larva of the genus Spirometra. Since the first case of human sparganosis reported in 1908, sparganosis has been a global disease, and is common in China, Japan, and Southeast Asian countries. Consumption of raw snakes, frogs, fish, or drinking contaminated beverages are sources of human infections. Human sparganosis usually manifests in subcutaneous fat in areas such as the abdomen, genitourinary tract, and limbs. Breast sparganosis cases are rare, representing less than 2% of total cases of human infections. Complete surgical extraction of the sparganum is the treatment of choice. Because of the rarity of the disease, clinical suspicion is vital to reach the diagnosis of breast sparganosis. Here we report 2 rare cases of breast sparganosis presenting with a painless breast lump, both treated with surgical excision and sparganum extraction.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.876-887
• /
• 2015

Dicer, an ribonuclease type III type endonuclease, is the key enzyme involved in biogenesis of microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and thus plays a critical role in RNA interference through post transcriptional regulation of gene expression. This enzyme has not been well studied in the Indian water buffalo, an important species known for disease resistance and high milk production. In this study, the primary coding sequence (5,778 bp) of bubaline dicer (GenBank: AB969677.1) was determined and the bubaline Dicer1 biocomputationally characterized to determine the phylogenetic signature among higher eukaryotes. The evolutionary tree revealed that all the transcript variants of Dicer1 belonging to a specific species were within the same node and the sequences belonging to primates, rodents and lagomorphs, avians and reptiles formed independent clusters. The bubaline dicer1 is closely related to that of cattle and other ruminants and significantly divergent from dicer of lower species such as tapeworm, sea urchin and fruit fly. Evolutionary divergence analysis conducted using MEGA6 software indicated that dicer has undergone purifying selection over the time. Seventeen divergent sequences, representing each of the families/taxa were selected to study the specific regions of positive vis-$\grave{a}$-vis negative selection using different models like single likelihood ancestor counting, fixed effects likelihood, and random effects likelihood of Datamonkey server. Comparative analysis of the domain structure revealed that Dicer1 is conserved across mammalian species while variation both in terms of length of Dicer enzyme and presence or absence of domain is evident in the lower organisms.