*** Welcome to piglix ***

Anisakis

Anisakis
Anisakis.jpg
Anisakis simplex
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Nematoda
Class: Secernentea
Order: Ascaridida
Family: Anisakidae
Genus: Anisakis
Dujardin, 1845
Species
Anisakis
Classification and external resources
Specialty infectious disease
ICD-10 B81.0
ICD-9-CM 127.1
DiseasesDB 32147
Patient UK Anisakis
MeSH D017129
[]

Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes, which have life cycles involving fish and marine mammals. They are infective to humans and cause anisakiasis. People who produce immunoglobulin E in response to this parasite may subsequently have an allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis, after eating fish that have been infected with Anisakis species.

The genus Anisakis was created in 1845 by Félix Dujardin as a subgenus of the genus Ascaris Linnaeus, 1758. Dujardin did not make explicit the etymology but stated that the subgenus included the species in which the males have unequal spicules ("mâles ayant des spicules inégaux"); thus the name Anisakis is based on anis- (Greek prefix for different) and akis (Greek for spine or spicule). Two species were included in the new subgenus, Ascaris (Anisakis) distans Rudolphi, 1809 and Ascaris (Anisakis) simplex Rudolphi, 1809.

Anisakis species have complex life cycles which pass through a number of hosts through the course of their lives. Eggs hatch in seawater, and larvae are eaten by crustaceans, usually euphausids. The infected crustacean is subsequently eaten by a fish or squid, and the nematode burrows into the wall of the gut and encysts in a protective coat, usually on the outside of the visceral organs, but occasionally in the muscle or beneath the skin. The life cycle is completed when an infected fish is eaten by a marine mammal, such as a whale, seal, or dolphin. The nematode excysts in the intestine, feeds, grows, mates and releases eggs into the seawater in the host's feces. As the gut of a marine mammal is functionally very similar to that of a human, Anisakis species are able to infect humans who eat raw or undercooked fish.


...
Wikipedia

...