Infection Status of Isthmiophora hortensis Metacercariae in Dark Sleepers, Odontobutis Species, from Some Water Systems of the Republic of Korea

Abstract

Present study was performed to survey on infection status of Isthmiophora hortensis (formerly Echinostoma hortense) metacercariae (IhMc) in dark sleepers, Odontobutis spp., from some water systems of the Republic of Korea. A total of 237 Odontobutis spp. was collected in the water systems of 5 rivers, i.e., Mangyeong-gang (gang means river), Geum- gang, Tamjin-gang, Seomjin-gang, and Nakdong-gang. They were all examined with artificial digestion method for 5 years (2013–2017). A total of 137 (57.8%) Odontobutis spp. were infected with 14.8 IhMc in average. The prevalence was the highest in Nakdong-gang areas (62.9%) and followed by in Mangyeong-gang (57.1%), Geum-gang (56.3%), Tamjingang (54.8%), and Seomjin-gang (53.9%) areas. Metacercarial densities were 28.1 (Geum-gang), 13.9 (Mangyeong-gang), 13.3 (Nakdong-gang), 13.1 (Tamjin-gang), and 2.3 (Seomjin-gang) per infected fish. Especially, in case of Yugucheon (cheon means stream), a branch of Geum-gang, IhMc were detected in all fish (100%) examined and their density was about 48 per fish. By the present study, it was confirmed that the infection status of IhMc is more or less different by the surveyed areas and the dark sleepers, Odontobutis spp., are suitable fish hosts of I. hortensis.

Infections with Digenetic Trematode Metacercariae in Freshwater Fishes from Two Visiting Sites of Migratory Birds in Gyeongsangnam-do, Republic of Korea

“…They were elliptical, 162× 127 µm in average size and morphologically very similar with those of I. hortensis. The metacercariae of I. hortensis previously reported were globular or elliptical, 143-165 (154) by 128-158 (144) µm in size, and have 27 collar spines including 4 end group ones in each side of the head crown [29]. However, most of echinostomatid metacercariae detected were inactive in the cyst wall, and then we could not obtain the adult worms from hamsters experimentally infected with them.…”

“…Han et al [30] examined total 7 fish species, P. parva (301), E. erythropterus (113), Rhodeus uyekii (44), Rhodeus ocellatus (9), Gnathopogon atromaculatus (= G. striatus) (6), C. carassius (= C. auratus) (2) and Acanthorhodeus taenianalis (= A. macropterus) (2), from Junam-jeosuji in 1992. Kong and Choi [31] investigated DTM infections in 8 fish species, G. atromaculatus (61), A. taenianalis (33), P. parva (29), C. carassius (22), Zacco platypus (20), Microphysogobio koreesis (19), R. uyekii (16) and Zacco temminckii (8), from Woopo-neup. Sohn and Choi [32] also examined on the infection status of DTM in 5 fish species, H. eigenmanni (45), P. parva (25), E. erythropterus (20), A. macropterus (20), and C. auratus (20), from Junam-jeosuji.…”

“…On the other hand, many Korean workers have been investigated the infection status with digenetic trematode metacercariae (DTM) including Clonorchis sinensis in fishes from various ecological environments, such as river, stream, lake, pond, swamp and even coast, to estimate the DTM endemicities [18][19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Most of these studies were performed on the specific trematode species related with human infections, such as C. sinensis, heterophyid including Metagonimus yokogawai and echinostomatid flukes, in Korea [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. However, there have been not so many studies on the avian trematode metacercariae (ATM) in fishes from the visiting sites of migratory birds in Korea.…”

Infection Status with Clinostomum complanatum Metacercariae in Fish from Water Systems of Nakdong-gang (River) in Korea

“…Thus, many Korean workers have investigated the infection status with ZTM in fishes from various endemic areas to estimate the endemicities of specific zoonotic trematode, i.e., Clonorchis sinensis, Metagonimus spp. including M. yokogawai, Centrocestus armatus and Isthmiophora hortensis , infections [13–19]. However, the infection status of CcMc was rarely surveyed and has not been broadly investigated in freshwater fish from the water systems of Korea.…”

Infections of Two Isthmiophora Species (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) in Wild Mammals from Republic of Korea with Their Morphological Descriptions

“…Due to its public health importance, the life cycle of the species has been studied extensively. Freshwater snails of the family Lymnaeidae Rafinesque, 1815 are known to serve as first intermediate hosts [2][3][4], while freshwater fishes and frogs have been reported as second intermediate hosts [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10]. Addition-ally, a wide range of small mammals are known as respective definitive hosts, such as the rat (reported in Japan by Asada, 1926) [21], black-striped field mouse Apodemus agrarius (Pallas), Manchurian reed vole Microtus fortis pelliceus Thomas, domestic mouse Mus musculus L., brown rat Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout), black rat R. rattus L., Daurian pika Ochotona dauurica (Pallas), domestc dog Canis lupus familiaris L., domestic cat Felis catus L., Japanese weasel Mustela itatsi Temminck (= Lutreola itatsi itatsi) and raccoon Procyon lotor L. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”