An alarming study has found that more than 90 percent of popular Southern California freshwater game fish sampled contained invasive parasites. The fish had parasitic worms capable of infecting humans.
The scientists published the article about California's fish in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. The study mentions the fish contain two species of flatworms that may pose a risk to humans.
"Americans don't usually think about parasites when they eat freshwater fish because it hasn't historically been an issue here," said senior author Ryan Hechinger, an ecologist and parasitologist at the University of California San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "But these trematodes have now been widely introduced in the U.S. and that means that doctors and the public should be aware."
These two species are Haplorchis pumilio and Centrocestus formosanus. They're prevalent in a large number of fish in the state. Scientists examined 83 fish including seven species. 93 percent of those sampled were infected.
Fish In California
"These parasites are here in the U.S., and they're infecting fish that people are eating," Hechinger said. "We hope this study can help make public health officials, doctors and the public more aware."
However, Hechinger isn't trying to incite a public panic. There's plenty of ways to kill the parasites including cooking or freezing the fish for at least a week. Both of these will make the food safe to eat. But the risk of infection remains if these guidelines aren't followed. For that reason, scientists are ringing the alarm.
The study reads, "Historically, locally transmitted fishborne trematodiasis has not been a public health concern in the United States (US). However, the widespread introduction of the first intermediate host snail Melanoides tuberculata and 2 of the fishborne trematodes it transmits (Haplorchis pumilio and Centrocestus formosanus), along with their discovery at freshwater fishing localities throughout southern California, reveals a need to further evaluate the risk of local transmission of fishborne trematodiasis in the US."
They want hospitals and doctors to be on the look out for these problems.
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"There haven't been any reported cases of these parasites infecting Americans," Hechinger said."But nobody is looking for cases and doctors aren't required to report them."
