Ten Japanese who had come back from Cairo, Egypt to Japan after three months to two years of stay at Cairo were examined on the stools by the sedimentation mothod. The ova of heterophyid trematoda were detected in the feces of four persons. The cases were treated with Kamala (6 g/patient) and a kind of small flukes could be collected from the passed feces. On microscopical examination these small flukes were identified as H. heterophyes from their morphological characterisitcs. Especially the large number (64-82) of the spines which form a crown on the muscular gonotyle makes it distinguishable from other closely related heterophyid species.
Although many patients of H. heterophyes nocens have so far been reported in Japan, H. heterophyes has not been reported yet, and H. heterophyes occurs commonly among cats, dogs, foxes and human beings at Cairo.
In Cairo, a Japanese restaurant was opened at November, 1978. and in this restaurant these patients used to eat “Sashimi”, raw fishes of many kinds, including the brachish water fishes which could serve as the second intermediate hosts.
This parasite is known to cause diarrhea which may occasionally be accompanied with bloody stools. Further, according to the observations of Africa et al. (1935-'37), it can produce the fatal cardiac and cerebral failure in man; the serious impairments which have never been encountered in the Japanese cases of H. h. nocens. It is highly possible that many more cases of H. heterophyes would be imported. Therefore, it is recommended to cure all these cases, desirably before they would serve as reservoir to spread this new disease in Japan.

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A survey of the intestinal helminths among some kinds of primates (chimpanzee, marmosets and night-monkeys) imported as the laboratory animals were undertaken in 1977 by means of fecal examinations (direct smear, Tween 80 citric acid ether sedimentation procedure and filter-paper cultivation). The adult-worms excreted with stool after the treatment with thiabendazole were identified in some cases.
In 10 chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, five species of the helminthic ova (Oesophagostomum sp., Ternidens sp., Strongyloides fulleborni, Enterobius sp., and Trichuris trichiura) and one species of adult-worm (Enterobius sp.) were found, and the infective rate was 80% (Photographs 1-13).
In marmosets, Sanguinus oedipus and S. labiatus, four species of the helminthic ova (Dicrocoelid trematoda, Physaloptera sp., unidentified nematoda and Prothenorchis elegans), two species of unidentified nematoda larvae and three species of adult-worms (Enterobius sp., Primasubrura sp., and Prothenorchis elegans) were found. The infective rate was 77.8% in Sanguinus oedipus and 100% in S. labiatus (Photographs 14-21).
In night-monkeys, Aotes trivirgatus, six species of the helminthic ova (unidentified trematoda, Physaloptera sp., two species of unidentified nematoda and 2 species of unidentified parasites) were found, and the infective rate was 60% (Photographs 22-30).
Since these parasites of primates, especially Trichuris trichiura, Strongyloides fulleborni, Oesophagostomum sp., Ternidens sp. are infective to human beings too, the helminths of primates are very important as the parasitic zoonoses.
When these primates are used as experimental animals, these parasites will be a factor to influence experimental results and may infect investigators. Therefore these primates, which hold intestinal parasites, are not suitable as experimental animals.

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To establish a convenient and reliable method for diagnosis and epidemiological surveys on Guatemalan onchocerciasis, three skin biopsy instruments were evaluated in 108 volunteers. The German-made Holth type, the Japan-made Walser type corneoscleral punches and a lancet and disposable scalpels were used for the purposes of taking skin snips. Better results were obtained with the lancet and scalpel, indicating a higher detection rate or a lower false negative rate for the patients. This method, however, showed some disadvantages in the present study. The volunteers had various complaints and/or rejected our examinations because of the painfulness of the scalpel procedure. On the other hand, the Holth punch was better than the Walser punch which indicated a relatively high false negative case and was rather troublesome in handling. From the results obtained, we recommend the Holth punch as the skin snip apparatus in Guatemala. To examine the microfilarial densities in a given minute area of the skin, six skin snips each (12 snips in total), 0.5 cm apart, were taken by the Holth punch from 33 subjects. In this study, there were considerable numbers of negative skin snips, especially in those patients who had a relatively low density of microfilariae. This would be of importance for diagnosis and epidemiological surveys for Guatemalan onchocerciasis. The results seem to indicate that if one skin snip was taken from the patients of a low endemic area in Guatemala, the prevalence of onchocerciasis in the area might be underestimated with false negative skin snips. Moreover, there was a great variation in the microfilarial densities in the 12 skin snips from each subject. The maximum to minimum rate of microfilarial densities in average was 1 : 9.7 in the left scapula and 1 : 7.1 in the left iliac crest of the 33 subjects. These facts offer some useful suggestions for us, when we examine the intensity of infection in an endemic area or investigate a diurnal or seasonal variation of microfilarial densities of Onchocerca volvulus in Guatemala.

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