Digenean Holostephanus (Trematoda: Digenea: Cyathocotylidae) metacercariae in common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758) muscle: zoonotic potential and sensitivity to physico-chemical treatments.

Metacercariae of various species within the genus Holostephanus Szidat, 1936 (Trematoda: Digenea: Cyathocotylidae) occur in muscles of both farmed and wild fish, including common carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus, 1758). The life cycle includes a snail as first intermediate host, fish as second intermediate host and birds or mammals as final hosts. We studied the zoonotic potential and the viability of Holostephanus metacercariae from common carp following exposure to various physical and chemical treatments. Muscle tissue samples of common carp specimens from a fish farm in the north-eastern part of Hungary were examined and metacercariae recovered. The zoonotic potential was evaluated experimentally by using small mammals as models (albino mice, n = 2; and Syrian hamsters, n = 4) infected per os with Holostephanus cysts. Parallelly, Metagonimus metacercariae were used as positive controls. We could not confirm the zoonotic potential of Holostephanus metacercariae as they did not survive in the mammalian intestine whereas Metagonimus metacercariae developed to the adult stage. We assessed the viability of metacercariae isolated from common carp specimens during exposure to different physical treatments (temperatures of -18°C, +20°C, +40°C and +60°C) and chemical agents (5% and 10% acetic acid and 10% sodium chloride (NaCl)). Metacercariae lost viability by freezing at -18°C (2 h), heating at 60°C (20 min), incubation in 5% and 10% acetic acid (5 min) and 10% NaCl (2 h). These methods served as models to investigate the effectiveness of food preparation techniques (such as cold and hot smoking, freezing, salting and pickling) on the survival of metacercariae.

Differential survival of 3rd stage larvae of Contracaecum rudolphii type B infecting common bream (Abramis brama) and common carp (Cyprinus carpio).

The main fish host reaction to an infection with third stage anisakid nematode larvae is a response in which host immune cells (macrophages, granulocytes, lymphocytes) in affected internal organs initially are attracted to the parasite whereafter fibroblasts may enclose the parasite forming granuloma. Generally, the reaction is non-lethal to the parasite which may survive for years in the fish host retaining infectivity to the final host. This may also apply for the anisakid nematode Contracaecum rudolphii (having the adult stage in cormorants, using copepods as first intermediate/paratenic host and zooplankton feeding fish as paratenic hosts). The present study has shown that most Contracaecum rudolphii larvae survive in bream (Abramis brama) (from Lake Balaton, Hungary) whereas the majority of the nematode larvae die in Cyprinus carpio (from Lake Hévíz, directly connected to Lake Balaton). Both cyprinid host species interacted with the nematode larvae through establishing a marked cellular encapsulation around them but with different effects. The differential survival in common carp and bream may theoretically be explained by ecological factors, such as the environmental temperature which either directly or indirectly affect the development of nematode larvae, and/or intrinsic host factors, such as differential immune responses and host genetics.