Cambodia - Japan experts find parasites in Mekong fish species

Japanese experts have found the cancer-causing liver fluke parasite (Opisthorchis viverrini) in seven species of fish commonly eaten by Cambodians, newspapers reported Sunday.

The reports quoted Chor Meng Chuor, director of the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, as saying that the Japanese researchers had found the parasite in trey riel, a small cyprinid used to make prahoc fermented fish paste.

Trey riel comprises two species, the Siamese mud carp (Henicorhynchus siamensis) and the Mekong mud carp (Henicorhynchus lobatus).

Other species hosting the parasite that are commonly eaten by Cambodians include trey ongok prak (Puntius brevius) and trey srokakdam from the Cyclocheilichthys genus of carps and trey rucheik from the Acantopsis genus of loaches, the newspapers said.

In 2008, the Mekong River Commission's fisheries newsletter "Catch and Culture" reported that the liver fluke infected at least 93 species of fish in the Mekong Basin, and that cyprinids seemed to be particularly susceptible.

If a person eats infected parts of a fish raw, the fluke cysts rupture in the duodenum, releasing larvae that swim up the bile ducts, where they develop into adults.

The report noted that the flukes can live inside humans for up to ten years, so consumers of raw fish tend to accumulate a parasite burden as they get older.

The adult flukes feed by sucking on the walls of the bile duct, ingesting blood, other fluids and fragments of tissue.

Although some people appear not to be greatly affected, the parasites can cause a range of gastrointestinal symptoms, liver enlargement, and various other ill-effects, the most serious being cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts that is usually fatal.

The parasite has been dubbed "the carcinogenic liver fluke" and liver cancer rates are high throughout northeast Thailand , with Khon Kaen province having the highest incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in the world.

Eating raw freshwater fish is also popular in Laos.

News Desk

Rasmei Kampuchea Daily

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