Current Knowledge of Small Flukes (Digenea: Heterophyidae) from South America

Abstract

Fish-borne heterophyid trematodes are known to have a zoonotic potential, since at least 30 species are able to infect humans worldwide, with a global infection of around 7 million people. In this paper, a ‘state-of-the-art’ review of the South American heterophyid species is provided, including classical and molecular taxonomy, parasite ecology, host-parasite interaction studies and a list of species and their hosts. There is still a lack of information on human infections in South America with undetected or unreported infections probably due to the information shortage and little attention by physicians to these small intestinal flukes. Molecular tools for specific diagnoses of South American heterophyid species are still to be defined. Additional new sequences of Pygidiopsis macrostomum, Ascocotyle pindoramensis and Ascocotyle longa from Brazil are also provided.

The Role of the Parasite Life Cycle in Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases

“…Heterophyes are parasites on humans and a wide variety of animals such as cats, dogs and fish-eating mammals or birds. Fishermen who suffer from heterophiasis are a source of infection for other residents, because they generally defecate in the waters where they earn a living [9].…”

Comparative analysis of the characteristics of Haplorchis taichui mitochondrial genome with Metagonimus yokogawai and its ribosomal transcription unit with H. pumilio (family Heterophyidae)

“…Từ khóa: Đơn vị mã hóa ribosome, Haplorchis pumilio, Haplorchis taichui, hệ gen ty thể, mtDNA, Metagonimus yokogawai, rTU, sán lá ruột nhỏ ĐẶT VẤN ĐỀ Họ Heterophyidae Odhner, 1914 thuộc liên họ Opisthorchioidea Looss, 1899 (Digenea) bao gồm một tập hợp các loài sán lá ruột nhỏ (minute intestinal flukes) có tầm quan trọng về y tế và thú y với sự phân bố rộng và với hơn 60 loài phổ biến ở hàng chục nước trên thế giới (Chai, Jung, 2017;Chai, 2019;Santos, Borges, 2020). Hầu hết những người nhiễm bệnh sống ở các nước Châu Á, bao gồm Hàn Quốc, Trung Quốc, Đài Loan, Việt Nam, Lào, Thái Lan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippin và Ấn Độ.…”

The first new species of European Ascocotyle Looss, 1899 (Digenea: Heterophyidae) described in more than half a century

“…serve as a basis for species identification ( Burton, 1958 ; Scholz et al, 1997a , b ). Several subgenera of Ascocotyle have been proposed, but their validity, circumscription and phylogenetic relationships remain unclear, partly because molecular data are available for only a few species ( Hernández-Orts et al, 2019 ; Santos and Borges, 2020 ).…”