Detection and diagnosis of human taenia saginata taeniosis

1.0 IntroductionTaenia solium and Taenia saginata cestode infections are unique parasiticzoonoses. Man is the definitive host of the adult intestinal stage and the larvalstages may occur in both animals and humans (T. solium). Infection with thesetwo Taenia species is widely prevalent in swine, cattle and human populations inmany tropical and sub-tropical African, Asian and Latin American countries. Athird species T. asiatica (Eom and Rim, 1993) occurs in Southeast Asia andappears to be transmitted between humans and pigs. Cysticercosis and taeniosisare endemic in countries where poverty is high, access to safe and basic sanitationis poor or not available, and where swine and cattle husbandry methods aretraditional and limited (Sarti et al., 1992; Allan and Craig, 1994; Flisser, 1994;Lloyd, 1998; Sarti et al., 1999). Developing countries are however notcompletely free of Taenia infections (Llose et al., 1990; Kyvsgaard et al., 1990,1991; Schantz, 1998) and the use of sewage sludge as a fertiliser for pastureseems to be a major risk factor for T. saginata infection in cattle in Europe(Cabaret et al., 2002). Taeniosis and cysticercosis affect approximately about 100million people worldwide WHO/FAO/OIE (2005) and are now regarded aspotential emerging or re-emerging zoonoses in several underdeveloped ordeveloped communities (Schantz et al., 1992; Moore et al., 1995; Craig et al.,1996; Schantz, 1998; DeGiorgio et al., 2005; Sorvillo et al., 2007)