ABSTRACT
Taenia solium is a zoonotic cestode that typically involves humans as definitive host and pigs as intermediate host. T. solium-related taeniasis and cysticercosis in humans and pigs have been known since ancient times, with the domestication of pigs over 11,000years ago, early mention of the disease about 2000 BC, and naming of the culprit parasite adult worm as taenia in the first century BC. By 1854, the connection between T. solium taeniasis and cysticercosis was clearly established after several experimental studies. Resulting from accidental ingestion of embryonated eggs or proglottids, T. solium larval infection in humans may appear as muscular and dermatologic cysticercosis, ocular cysticercosis, and neurocysticercosis. Diagnosis of porcine cysticercosis is based on antemortem inspection of tongue and muscle, serological detection of antibodies and antigen, and postmortem inspection of carcass inspection and molecular identification of T. solium nucleic acids.
