Anyone know the name of the parasite that most common in Sushi?

[SarahB]

It's something "sacks". Not asking about prevention, debating sushi, or anything like that. Just having a hard time getting this info when I google it. Thanks. End of transmission for boring questions. :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. taysacks?

[MuseRider]

2. Tay - Sachs?

No, sorry. That is an inhereted metabolic disorder of Ashkenazi Jews I think. Something to do with lipid storage. Going to go look it up.

On Edit link http://www.ntsad.org/pages/t-sachs.htm#What%20is%20Tay-Sachs%20Disease?

[SarahB]

4. You're right.

Tay-Sachs is a genetic disorder.

[mr_hat]

3. The bowel weevil.

[lazarus]

5. is it this?

Viewer Question:
I understand that eating Sushi (raw fish) can possibly cause a person to become infected by a parasite from the fish. If this is true- what is the parasite and how might it affect a person? Do you know of any specific cases?


Doctor's Response:
Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease contracted from infected seafood which is eaten raw or marinated. This is a type of round worm which can be picked up from eating sashimi, sushi, and ceviche.

Symptoms are variable and can range from an acute syndrome with nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain or diarrhea within 12 hours of eating infected seafood to other problems which can last weeks to months. Anisakiasis can mimic other diseases, such as acute appendicitis, stomach tumors, and inflammatory bowel disease.

This author has seen one case in 14 years in which the worm migrated completely through the small bowel wall causing an acute abdomen and necessitated a laparotomy with resection of the affected segment of intestine.
http://www.medicinenet.com/Script/Main/Art.asp?ArticleKey=19929

[SarahB]

7. I think that's it.

Gotta go do a little more research to be sure, but thank you. :D

:loveya: :yourock:

[Tyler Durden]

6. Diphylobothrium latum

The broad fish tapeworm. Its eggs and immature forms are found in MOST fish, and it matures in the human gut-growing to between 3 and 7 FEET (which is why sushi is not such a great idea, although it is more rare in tuna.)

[Eurobabe]

8. eeeeeeeeeewww

i knew there was a reason i did not like sushi. bad mental images.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Anisakis is the name of the worm parasite from sushi. Anisikiasis is

the disease.

There have been case reports of people operated on for appendicitis and the appendix was found to have anisakis worms in it from sushi.

That having been said, sushi is one of my favorite things.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

10. Picture of how the anisakis roundworm gets from the fish to you.

Informative link about anisakis:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/chap25.html

5. Associated Foods: Seafoods are the principal sources of human infections with these larval worms. The adults of A. simplex are found in the stomachs of whales and dolphins. Fertilized eggs from the female parasite pass out of the host with the host's feces. In seawater, the eggs embryonate, developing into larvae that hatch in sea water. These larvae are infective to copepods (minute crustaceans related to shrimp) and other small invertebrates. The larvae grow in the invertebrate and become infective for the next host, a fish or larger invertebrate host such as a squid. The larvae may penetrate through the digestive tract into the muscle of the second host. Some evidence exists that the nematode larvae move from the viscera to the flesh if the fish hosts are not gutted promptly after catching. The life cycles of all the other anisakid genera implicated in human infections are similar. These parasites are known to occur frequently in the flesh of cod, haddock, fluke, pacific salmon, herring, flounder, and monkfish.

6. Relative Frequency of Disease: Fewer than 10 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. annually. However, it is suspected that many other cases go undetected. The disease is transmitted by raw, undercooked or insufficiently frozen fish and shellfish, and its incidence is expected to increase with the increasing popularity of sushi and sashimi bars.

7. Course of Disease and Complications: Severe cases of anisakiasis are extremely painful and require surgical intervention. Physical removal of the nematode(s) from the lesion is the only known method of reducing the pain and eliminating the cause (other than waiting for the worms to die). The symptoms apparently persist after the worm dies since some lesions are found upon surgical removal that contain only nematode remnants. Stenosis (a narrowing and stiffening) of the pyloric sphincter was reported in a case in which exploratory laparotomy had revealed a worm that was not removed.

8. Target Populations: The target population consists of consumers of raw or underprocessed seafood.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

11. I think its John Smith . . . or maybe Jones.

Can't remember. ;)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. I don't know, but I do know that it's very dangerous to eat

freshwater fish raw, which is why the Japanese use saltwater fish exclusively, and in the olden days, inland Japanese didn't eat sashimi or sushi.