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Even though the cetacean tapeworm Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum occurs in both cold and warm waters, human infections and final host occurrences have been confined to temperate areas in and near Japan.… Click to show full abstract
Even though the cetacean tapeworm Diphyllobothrium stemmacephalum occurs in both cold and warm waters, human infections and final host occurrences have been confined to temperate areas in and near Japan. We recently obtained a strobila of this cestode that was excreted from a harbor porpoise accidentally caught offshore of Hokkaido of northern Japan. Genetic analysis of 28S rDNA and cox1 genes confirmed that the cestode was D. stemmacephalum. Our finding sets the northernmost record of D. stemmacephalum in the western Pacific, suggesting that the risk of human infections by this parasite in northern Japan deserves further attention.
Journal Title: Parasitology international
Year Published: 2021
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