ABSTRACT
Among the Thelazia species causing ocular infections in animals, Thelazia californiensis Price 1930 and Thelazia callipaeda Railliet and Henry 1910 are parasites of carnivores and, importantly, may be zoonotic agents. While T. californiensis plays a minor role in human infections, being con‘ned to western United States [2,3], T. callipaeda has been reported to infect humans in several geographic areas. Also known as “the oriental eyeworm,” the latter species can indeed parasitize several hosts (e.g., dogs, cats, foxes, wolves, rabbits, hares, and humans) and has been for a long time thought to be con‘ned only in Asia (i.e., Indonesia, Thailand, China, Korea, Birmania, India, and Japan) [4-6]. Nonetheless, recent reports of thelaziosis by T. callipaeda in Europe (i.e., Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany), mainly in dogs, foxes, cats, but also in humans, have raised interest in this nematode infection within the ‘eld of medical and veterinary parasitology.
