Stellantchasmus falcatus (Digenea: Heterophyidae) in Cambodia: Discovery of Metacercariae in Mullets and Recovery of Adult Flukes in an Experimental Hamster

Stellantchasmus falcatus (Digenea: Heterophyidae) is first reported from Cambodia through recovery of the metacercariae from mullet fish and adult flukes from an experimentally infected hamster. We purchased 7 mullets, Chelon macrolepis, in a local market of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and each of them was examined by the artificial digestion method on May 2010. The metacercariae of S. falcatus were detected in all mullets (100%) examined, and their average density was 177 per fish. They were elliptical, 220×168 μm in average size. They were orally infected to an hamster to obtain adult flukes. Adults recovered at day 10 post infection were observed with a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). They were small, 450×237 μm in average size, had a small oral sucker (41×50 μm), subglobular pharynx (29×21 μm), slender esophagus (57 μm), long and thick-walled expulsor (119×32 μm), spherical ovary (58×69 μm), and 2 ovoid testes (right: 117×74 μm; left: 114×63 μm). Eggs were small, yellow, and 23×12 μm in average size. In SEM observations, tegumental spines were densely distributed on the whole tegument, and single small type I sensory papillae were distributed around the lip of oral sucker. The small ventral sucker was dextrally located and had 8 type I sensory papillae on the left margin. It has been first confirmed in the present study that the mullet, C. macrolepis, is playing the role of a second intermediate host of S. falcatus in Cambodia.