Correspondence

Taenia in the Gastrointestinal Tract

N Engl J Med 2008; 358:311January 17, 2008

Article

To the Editor:

Liao and Bair (Sept. 6 issue)1 describe a tapeworm in a 60-year-old woman from a community where pork and pork liver are eaten, especially at festivals, and suggest infection with Taenia solium (the pork tapeworm) rather than T. saginata (the beef tapeworm). It is possible that the infection was caused instead by Asian taenia (T. asiatica, T. saginata asiatica), which has been reported in aborigines in Taiwan,2 with subsequent reports from other Asian countries: Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China.3,4 T. asiatica is believed to be transmissible only through ingestion of pig viscera such as the liver, omentum, serosa, or lung,4 not through the muscle of intermediate hosts, as is characteristic of T. solium and T. saginata. It is important to discriminate among the three taxa,3,4 since ingestion of T. solium eggs by humans can result in neurocysticercosis, a serious public health problem in many areas worldwide. T. saginata does not cause cysticercosis in humans, and it is unknown whether this disorder occurs with Asian taenia.5

Donald P. McManus, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, QLD 4029, Australia
donm@qimr.edu.au

5 References

1. 1

   Liao W-S, Bair MJ. Taenia in the gastrointestinal tract. N Engl J Med 2007;357:1028-1028
   Full Text | Web of Science | Medline

2. 2

   Fan PC. Taiwan Taenia and taeniasis. Parasitol Today 1988;4:86-88
   CrossRef | Medline

3. 3

   Bowles J, McManus DP. Genetic characterization of the Asian Taenia, a newly described taeniid cestode of humans. Am J Trop Med Hyg 1994;50:33-44
   Web of Science | Medline

4. 4

   Eom KS. What is Asian Taenia? Parasitol Int 2006;55:Suppl:S137-S141
   CrossRef | Web of Science | Medline

5. 5

   McManus DP. Molecular discrimination of taeniid cestodes. Parasitol Int 2006;55:Suppl:S31-S37
   CrossRef | Web of Science | Medline

Citing Articles (2)

Citing Articles

1. 1

   Kanako Yamane, Yumi Suzuki, Eiko Tachi, Tiaoying Li, Xingwang Chen, Minoru Nakao, Agathe Nkouawa, Testuya Yanagida, Yasuhito Sako, Akira Ito, Hiroshi Sato, Munehiro Okamoto. (2012) Recent hybridization between Taenia asiatica and Taenia saginata. Parasitology International
   CrossRef

2. 2

   Munehiro Okamoto, Minoru Nakao, David Blair, Malinee T. Anantaphruti, Jitra Waikagul, Akira Ito. (2010) Evidence of hybridization between Taenia saginata and Taenia asiatica. Parasitology International 59:1, 70-74
   CrossRef