Wildlife-transmitted Taenia and Versteria cysticercosis and coenurosis in humans and other primates

Publication date: Available online 11 April 2019Source: International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and WildlifeAuthor(s): Peter Deplazes, Ramon M. Eichenberger, Felix GrimmAbstractWild mustelids and canids are definitive hosts of Taenia and Versteria spp. while rodents act as natural intermediate hosts. Rarely, larval stages of these parasites can cause seriouszoonoses. In Europe, four cases of Taenia martis cysticercosis have been diagnosed in immunocompetent women, and two cases in zoo primates since 2013. In North America, a zoonotic genotype related but distinct from Versteria mustelae has been identified in 2014, which had caused a fatal infection in an orangutan and liver- and disseminated cysticercoses in two severely immune deficient human patients in 2018, respectively. Additionally, we could attribute a historic human case from the USA to this Versteria sp. by reanalysing a published nucleotide sequence. In the last decades, sporadic zoonotic infections by cysticerci of the canid tapeworm Taenia crassiceps have been described (4 in North America, 8 in Europe). Besides, 3 ocular cases from North America and one neural infection from Europe, all in immunocompetent patients, 6 cutaneous infections were described in severely immunocompromised European patients. Correspondingly, besides oral infections with taeniid eggs, accidental subcutaneous oncosphere establishment after egg-contamination of open wounds was suggested, especially in cases with a history of cuta...
Source: International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife - Category: Parasitology Source Type: research