A diphyllobothriid cestode, which has been spontaneously expelled from a 57-year-old seaman at Fukuoka City, on December 1969, was sent to us for identification. The appearance of yellowish-brown, thickset, complete strobila (about 600 mm in length) was evidently different from usual forms of the known diphyllobothriid cestodes from humans. It was tentatively reported as “another marine species of the genus
Diphyllobothrium from a man in Japan” (Kamo
et al., 1978). After careful morphological examinations it is now identified as
Diphyllobothrium cameroni Rausch, 1969, which has been found in a Hawaiian monk seal (
Monachus schauinslandi) from Midway Atoll, Leeward Island in the Pacific Ocean. In the relative position of the uterine pore, within the genital atrium, and other morphological details, it agrees closely with Rausch's description. The discrepancies in dimensions of the seminal vesicle and egg size are probably attributable to the considerably greater size of our specimen, which had grown well in larger space of human intestine. Its eggshell surface observed by SEM exhibited the typical characteristics (deep, numerous pits, with rough intervening surface) as the eggs of cestodes from the marine habitat according to Hilliard (1972). It seems to be the first and unusual case of human infection with
Diphyllobothrium cameroni Rausch, 1969 (new Japanese name : cameron retto jochu). The source of human infection is quite obscure.
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