Abstract
REFERRING to the report by J. B. Duguid and E. M. Sheppard of the infection of trout in a South Wales reservoir with plerocercoids of a tapeworm belonging to the Diphyllobothriidæ (see Nature of August 5, p. 185), M. D. Hickey and J. R. Harris (British Med. J., 310, Sept. 2, 1944) report the finding of an adult tapeworm belonging to the genus Diphyllobothrium in seagulls and cormorants in the Dublin area. They think that these birds are the naturally infected definitive hosts of the parasite in this district. Trout from reservoirs near Dublin are heavily infected with plerocercoids belonging to the Diphyllobothriidæ. In the intestines of the greater and lesser black-backed gulls (Larus marinus and L. fuscus), of herring gulls (Larus argentatus) and of cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) the authors found all stages of the tapeworm from the plerocercoid found in the fish to the adult tapeworm. Investigation is proceeding and further details will be published later.
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Tapeworms in Seagulls and Cormorants. Nature 154, 425 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154425c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154425c0