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[DIGEST: CNN, KTLA, Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Alaska Dispatch News]
Adventurous diners may want to think twice before ordering that salmon sashimi.
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Researchers have discovered Japanese tapeworm larvae, originally thought to only infect fish caught in Asia, in salmon harvested off the coast of Alaska. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to a </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/health/salmon-tapeworm-food-study/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> published this month by </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Emerging Infectious Diseases</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, salmon caught throughout the Pacific Coast region may harbor the parasite.</span></p><p><div id="insticator-container" class="embedid-ee1b1245-7f34-4d5c-8a70-c8be74fe7696"><div id="div-insticator-ad-1"></div><div id="insticator-embed"></div><div id="div-insticator-ad-2"></div><script data-cfasync="false" type="text/javascript">Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-1");Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-2");Insticator.load("em",{id : "ee1b1245-7f34-4d5c-8a70-c8be74fe7696"})</script></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scientists identify the organism found in the fish as the Japanese broad tapeworm, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Diphyllobothrium </span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">nihonkaiense</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. It’s the </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/health/salmon-tapeworm-food-study/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">second most common</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> cause of tapeworm infection in humans; since the</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> D. nihonkaiense’s </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">discovery in 1986, it’s believed to be the culprit in approximately 2,000 illnesses throughout Asia, though the study says this number is most likely </span><a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2017/01/12/tapeworm-from-asian-waters-found-in-southcentral-alaska-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">under-reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The first North American infection </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/01/13/researchers-identify-japanese-tapeworm-parasite-in-alaskan-caught-salmon/?utm_term=.cf552233175a"><span style="font-weight: 400;">occurred</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in 2008.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As part of the study, starting in 2013 researchers from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Alaska Department of Fish and Game together examined thinly sliced filets from 64 wild-caught Alaskan salmon under a microscope. They found several tapeworms between </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/health/salmon-tapeworm-food-study/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8 and 15 millimeters long</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and through gene sequencing were able to identify one of them as </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">D. </span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">nihonkaiense</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></i></p><p><div data-conversation-spotlight=""></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“North America may represent a source of human infection," the scientists</span> <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2017/01/12/tapeworm-from-asian-waters-found-in-southcentral-alaska-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">note</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in the study. "Because Pacific salmon are frequently exported unfrozen, on ice, [Japanese broad tapeworm larvae] may survive transport and cause human infections in areas where they are not endemic, such as China, Europe, New Zealand and [the] middle and eastern United States."</span></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjAzNzE5Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTUyNTE5N30.ApWEkQie_eUSo4th-7uJc7VUKBWshSWsC_jiN_AXLiE/img.jpg?width=980" id="93a75" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="baa4820a331c6f753afd1f250861d45d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"><small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Credit: <a href="https://www.adn.com/resizer/jtcx4mTHYWXuOzbhZ-XdHiZfvdc=/600x0/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/adn/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/12063638/16-1026-F1.jpg?token=bar">Source</a>.</small></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The study</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/01/13/researchers-identify-japanese-tapeworm-parasite-in-alaskan-caught-salmon/?utm_term=.1e3dbfc5cd24"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> included</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> samples from chinook, coho, pink and sockeye salmon, plus rainbow trout, but researchers </span><a href="http://ktla.com/2017/01/13/study-u-s-salmon-may-carry-japanese-tapeworm-which-can-grow-to-30-feet-long/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">point</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to chum, masu, pink and sockeye as the species most commonly responsible for parasitic transmission.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though tapeworm infection remains </span><a href="http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/news/a42370/tapeworm-discovered-in-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">rare</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in the U.S., it’s an affliction that can “have a substantial emotional impact on patients and their families,” </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/health/salmon-tapeworm-food-study/index.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">says</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Roman Kuchta, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences. </span></p><p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Diphyllobothrium</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> species have been known to grow up to </span><a href="http://ktla.com/2017/01/13/study-u-s-salmon-may-carry-japanese-tapeworm-which-can-grow-to-30-feet-long/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30 feet long</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and infection in the body is, experts say, unmistakable. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The reason you know you have tapeworms is you look in your stool and you find bits of tapeworm floating in the water," Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/health/salmon-tapeworm-food-study/index.html?sr=fbCNN011117salmon-tapeworm-food-study1101PMStoryGalLink&linkId=33287297"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">CNN. If this happens, consumers are </span><a href="http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/news/a42370/tapeworm-discovered-in-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">advised</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to collect a sample and make an immediate appointment with their doctor. </span><a href="http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/news/a42370/tapeworm-discovered-in-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Treatment</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> involves oral medication, which is usually quick to kill the tapeworm.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though </span><a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2017/01/12/tapeworm-from-asian-waters-found-in-southcentral-alaska-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">90 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of Pacific salmon are caught off the coast of Alaska, only </span><a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2017/01/12/tapeworm-from-asian-waters-found-in-southcentral-alaska-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are shipped fresh and unprocessed. The larvae do not survive being frozen or cooked to high temperatures, which means the majority of U.S. consumers of salmon are not at risk. Further, some point out that the consumption of the raw meat of any wild animal bears risk of parasitic infection.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“If it was anything that was of concern, increased risk or anything like that from a management standpoint, we would have said something,” Jayde Ferguson, a Department of Fish and Game ecologist and study author, </span><a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2017/01/12/tapeworm-from-asian-waters-found-in-southcentral-alaska-salmon/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a> <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alaska Dispatch News</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “[The salmon are] going to have parasites, they’re out in nature.”</span></p>
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