Most of the diphyllobothriid tapeworms isolated from human samples in the Republic of Korea (= Korea) have been identified as Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense by genetic analysis. This paper reports confirmation of D. nihonkaiense infections in 4 additional human samples obtained between 1995 and 2014, which were analyzed at the Department of Parasitology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Korea. Analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (cox1) gene revealed a 98.5-99.5% similarity with a reference D. nihonkaiense sequence in GenBank. The present report adds 4 cases of D. nihonkaiense infections to the literature, indicating that the dominant diphyllobothriid tapeworm species in Korea is D. nihonkaiense but not D. latum.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Dietary footprints of a global parasite: diagnosing Dibothriocephalus nihonkaiensis in non-endemic regions Wilson G.W. Goh, Jean-Marc Chavatte, Gabriel Z.R. Yan, Yuan Yi Constance Chen, Mark Dhinesh Muthiah, Lionel H.W. Lum Gut Pathogens.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
Human diphyllobothriosis in Taiwan: A review of cases and molecular evidence of Dibothriocephalus nihonkaiensis Chia-Kwung Fan, Daniel Barčák, Tomáš Scholz, Pasaikou Sonko, Martina Orosová, Kua-Eyre Su, Chun-Chao Chang, Yuarn-Jang Lee, Roman Kuchta, Mikuláš Oros Food and Waterborne Parasitology.2023; 33: e00213. CrossRef
Population genetic structure of diphyllobothriid tapeworms (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidea) parasitising fish in the Baikal Rift Zone IA Kutyrev, VA Mordvinov Diseases of Aquatic Organisms.2022; 148: 113. CrossRef
Molecular Identification of Diphyllobothrium latum from a Pediatric Case in Taiwan Yu-Chin An, Chia-Cheng Sung, Chih-Chien Wang, Hsin-Chung Lin, Kuang-Yao Chen, Fu-Man Ku, Ruei-Min Chen, Mei-Li Chen, Kuo-Yang Huang The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2017; 55(4): 425. CrossRef
Four Human Cases of Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense (Eucestoda: Diphyllobothriidae) in China with a Brief Review of Chinese Cases Yu-Chun Cai, Shao-Hong Chen, Hiroshi Yamasaki, Jia-Xu Chen, Yan Lu, Yong-Nian Zhang, Hao Li, Lin Ai, Hai-Ning Chen The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2017; 55(3): 319. CrossRef
Molecular Identification of <i>Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense</i> from 3 Human Cases in Heilongjiang Province with a Brief Literature Review in China Weizhe Zhang, Fei Che, Song Tian, Jing Shu, Xiaoli Zhang The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2015; 53(6): 683. CrossRef
Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense has been reported in Korea as Diphyllobothrium latum because of their close morphologic resemblance. We have identified a human case of D. nihonkaiense infection using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene sequence analysis. On 18 February 2012, a patient who had consumed raw fish a month earlier visited our outpatient clinic with a long tapeworm parasite excreted in the feces. The body of the segmented worm was 2 m long and divided into the scolex (head) and proglottids. It was morphologically close to D. nihonkaiense and D. latum. The cox1 gene analysis showed 99.4% (340/342 bp) homology with D. nihonkaiense but only 91.8% (314/342 bp) homology with D. latum. The present study suggested that the Diphyllobothrium spp. infection in Korea should be analyzed with specific DNA sequence for an accurate species identification.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Dietary footprints of a global parasite: diagnosing Dibothriocephalus nihonkaiensis in non-endemic regions Wilson G.W. Goh, Jean-Marc Chavatte, Gabriel Z.R. Yan, Yuan Yi Constance Chen, Mark Dhinesh Muthiah, Lionel H.W. Lum Gut Pathogens.2025;[Epub] CrossRef
Repertory of eukaryotes (eukaryome) in the human gastrointestinal tract: taxonomy and detection methods I. Hamad, D. Raoult, F. Bittar Parasite Immunology.2016; 38(1): 12. CrossRef
Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense: wide egg size variation in 32 molecularly confirmed adult specimens from Korea Seoyun Choi, Jaeeun Cho, Bong-Kwang Jung, Deok-Gyu Kim, Sarah Jiyoun Jeon, Hyeong-Kyu Jeon, Keeseon S. Eom, Jong-Yil Chai Parasitology Research.2015; 114(6): 2129. CrossRef
Three Cases of Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense Infection in Korea Hong-Ja Kim, Keeseon S. Eom, Min Seo The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2014; 52(6): 673. CrossRef
Extracorporeal Worm Extraction of Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense with Amidotrizoic Acid in a Child Hye Kyung Shin, Joo-Hyung Roh, Jae-Won Oh, Jae-Sook Ryu, Youn-Kyoung Goo, Dong-Il Chung, Yong Joo Kim The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2014; 52(6): 677. CrossRef
Two Human Cases of Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense Infection in Korea Su-Min Song, Hye-Won Yang, Min Kyu Jung, Jun Heo, Chang Min Cho, Youn-Kyoung Goo, Yeonchul Hong, Dong-Il Chung The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2014; 52(2): 197. CrossRef
Parasitic Infections Based on 320 Clinical Samples Submitted to Hanyang University, Korea (2004-2011) Sung-Chul Choi, Soo-Young Lee, Hyun-Ouk Song, Jae-Sook Ryu, Myoung-Hee Ahn The Korean Journal of Parasitology.2014; 52(2): 215. CrossRef