ABSTRACT
Among the minute intestinal trematodes of the family Heterophyidae (= heterophyids), three genera, namely Metagonimus, Heterophyes, and Haplorchis, are highly important from medical and public health points of view [1,2]. The genus Metagonimus was created by F. Katsurada in 1912 based on adult ›ukes recovered from experimentally infected dogs in Taiwan with the ›esh of sweet‘sh, Plecoglossus altivelis, and also from humans who consumed raw sweet‘sh [3]. Subsequently, several other species of Metagonimus have been reported; Metagonimus takahashii Suzuki, 1930 [4], M. minutus Katsuta, 1932 [5], M. katsuradai Izumi, 1935 [6], M. miyatai Saito et al., 1997 [7,8], and M. otsurui Saito and Shimizu, 1968 [9]. Among them, three species, namely M. yokogawai, M. takahashii, and M. miyatai are the major species known to infect humans [2,10]. M. minutus is listed among the human-infecting trematode species [11]; however, no literature background is available [2]. M. katsuradai was experimentally proven to be able to infect humans [6]; however, there has been no further report regarding human infections (Table 36.1).
