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Sunday 26 February 2012

Japanese experts find liver fluke parasite in seven fish species commonly eaten by Cambodians

Published: 26-Feb-12

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - Japanese experts have found the cancer-causing liver fluke parasite (Opisthorchis viverrini) in seven species of fish commonly eaten by Cambodians, newspapers reported Sunday.

The reports quoted Chor Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, as saying that the Japanese researchers had found the parasite in trey riel, a small cyprinid used to make prahoc fermented fish paste.

Trey riel comprises two species, the Siamese mud carp (Henicorhynchus siamensis) and the Mekong mud carp (Henicorhynchus lobatus).

Other species hosting the parasite that are commonly eaten by Cambodians include trey ongok prak (Puntius brevius) and trey srokakdam from the Cyclocheilichthys genus of carps and trey rucheik from the Acantopsis genus of loaches, the newspapers said.

In 2008, the Mekong River Commission's fisheries newsletter Catch and Culture reported that the liver fluke infected at least 93 species of fish in the Mekong Basin, and that cyprinids seemed to be particularly susceptible.

If a person eats infected parts of a fish raw, the fluke cysts rupture in the duodenum, releasing larvae that swim up the bile ducts, where they develop into adults.

The report noted that the flukes can live inside humans for up to ten years, so consumers of raw fish tend to accumulate a parasite burden as they get older.

The adult flukes feed by sucking on the walls of the bile duct, ingesting blood, other fluids and fragments of tissue.

Although some people appear not to be greatly affected, the parasites can cause a range of gastrointestinal symptoms, liver enlargement, and various other ill-effects, the most serious being cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile ducts that is usually fatal.

The parasite has been dubbed "the carcinogenic liver fluke" and liver cancer rates are high throughout northeast Thailand , with Khon Kaen province having the highest incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in the world.

Eating raw freshwater fish is also popular in Laos.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Janpanese experts who found this type of parasite!!...I think cambodian lakes, rivers, streams are full of toxic chemical also, and trash, used battery, plastic bags, baby diaper are being dump into the river, lakes these days...?? I've seen pile pile of trashes along river bank...We need to teach people not to throw trashes in the lake or river? We eat fishes remember?

Anonymous said...

I'm scare eating fish now when I visit srok khmer next time.

Anonymous said...

6:32 AM,

Don't get too scared!

It only happens if you eat raw fish. Read the article again and you will see!

Samlor Machou Tracoun with Trey Sanday or Machou Peng Poh with Trey Po are too delicious to go without and these fishes don't contain the parasites so take it easy.

You don't eat raw fish, do you? If not, you have nothing to worry about!

Anonymous said...

the country full of corrupted official,they are so corrupted even the fishes in khmer
rivers get decease ,worms and parasite becuase they are consumming government waste out of their house hold.