Paragonimus ohirai metacercariae in crabs collected along the Arakawa River in Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

Brackish water crabs infected with Paragonimus ohirai metacercariae have been reported in various regions in Japan. However, infected crabs have not been identified in Tokyo. We therefore collected the crab, Chiromantes dehaani, between August 2002 and July 2003 from 12 locations along the Arakawa River that flows through Tokyo. Of the 922 captured crabs, 177 (19%) from 6 locations were infected with Paragonimus metacercariae. The prevalence of metacercariae at these 6 locations ranged from 5 to 89%. The number of metacercariae per infected crab ranged from 1 to 190, with an average of 13.1. The morphological features of the metacercariae and of adult worms recovered from test rats infected with metacercariae showed that the metacercariae in the infected crabs were P. ohirai Miyazaki, 1939. The ITS2 sequence data support this conclusion. This paper is the first description of P. ohirai infection of crabs in Tokyo.