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Human diphyllobothriasis is sporadically detected in Spain. Diphyllobothrium latum and Diplogonoporus balaenopterae have been identified. In the study, four cases of presumably imported diphyllobothriasis in Spanish patients were appraised. Molecular diagnosis allowed us to identify ‘exotic’ fish tapeworms such as Diplogonoporus balaenopterae in one patient and Diphyllobothrium pacificum in the others.

The black amaranth (Amaranthus quitensis Kunth) is traditionally cultivated in the Ecuadorian highlands, where it has great social, cultural and food importance for the native population, and locally it is called ataco or sangorache. Currently, there are no data on the diversity and conservation status in which the ataco landraces are found. We have evaluated the phenotypic diversity of black amaranth landraces collected at two different times (1981-1986 and 2014-2015) in three representative Andean provinces for this crop (Imbabura, Tungurahua and Cañar). Thirty agro-morphological descriptors were used, 11 quantitative and 19 qualitative. Most of the quantitative traits showed high levels of variation, especially grain yield per plant. The qualitative traits showed less diversity, although the characters related to the plant pigmentation and the shape and attitude of the inflorescence were significantly discriminating between accessions from different provinces. Few significant differences were detected between both collects, so the farmers seem to be carrying out adequate on-farm conservation of the ataco germplasm. The agro-morphological information obtained in this study may be useful for enhancing the use of this plant genetic resource in future amaranth breeding programs, as well as for effectively managing the black amaranth collection from Germplasm Bank of the Ecuadorian National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIAP).

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Black amaranth (Amarantus quitensis Kunth) is an ancestral crop of the Ecuadorian Andean region, where traditionally it is called ataco or sangorache. Nowadays, there is some information about the phenotypic diversity of black amaranth landraces, but there are no data about their genetic diversity. In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity of 139 black amaranth accessions collected twice (1981–1986 and 2014–2015) in three representative Ecuadorian Andean provinces for this crop (Imbabura, Tungurahua, and Cañar) using nine simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers. We detected low genetic diversity levels; only a total of 36 alleles were amplified in 139 accessions, with a mean allelic richness of 4.0 per marker, observed heterozygosity of 0.014, expected heterozygosity of 0.134, and Shannon’s information index of 0.297. In addition, only 17 genotypes were found, with a predominant genotype (83.6%) and up to 12 accession-unique genotypes. Moreover, a certain genetic diversity decrease was observed over the last decades, especially in Tungurahua and Cañar, where today practically only the predominant genotype exists. The ataco germplasm is genetically structured into two well-defined genotype clusters and could constitute two different genetic lineages. Furthermore, a clear association of each genotype group with a different color morphotype defined in a previous agromorphological characterization was observed. The accessions of the majority group of genotypes showed purple pigmentation in stems, leaves, and inflorescences, whereas those of the other genotype group showed less intense pigmentation (pink stems, inflorescences, and green leaves). Molecular information obtained in this study may be useful for the suitable management and conservation of this underutilized genetic plant resource that is of great food and cultural significance for indigenous farming communities of the Ecuadorian highlands.