壽司寄生蟲數(shù)量正在悄然上升

研究表明，壽司寄生蟲數(shù)量正在悄然上升

A lot of sashimi bites back.

很多生魚片會反咬一口。

“Sushi parasites” have been increasing exponentially over the past half-century, according to findings published Thursday in the journal Global Change Biology.

根據(jù)周四發(fā)表在《全球變化生物學(xué)》雜志上的研究結(jié)果，“壽司寄生蟲”在過去半個世紀里呈指數(shù)級增長。

Led by the University of Washington researchers, the study — called “It’s a Wormy World” — found a dramatic increase in the number of worms transmittable to humans who consume raw or undercooked seafood.

由華盛頓大學(xué)的研究人員領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的這項名為“這是一個有蟲的世界”的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，食用生的或未煮熟的海產(chǎn)品的人可感染的蠕蟲數(shù)量急劇增加。

Using findings from previous studies, the authors concluded that seafood lovers today have a much higher likelihood of biting into a parasite than their 1970s cohorts did. Scientists are not sure why, but there’s been a 283-fold spike in the amount of Anisakis, or herring worms, in raw fish between 1967 and 2017.

根據(jù)以前的研究結(jié)果，作者得出結(jié)論，今天的海鮮愛好者比他們70年代的同伴更有可能咬到寄生蟲。科學(xué)家尚不清楚原因，但在1967年至2017年間，生魚中鯡魚蟲的數(shù)量增加了283倍。

Humans may interpret the nausea, vomiting and diarrhea they experience after eating the worms to be food poisoning, but these symptoms are in fact caused by the parasite invading the intestinal wall. The worms cannot live or reproduce for longer than a few days within a human intestine (although they can persist in marine mammals). Symptoms let up once they have died.

人類可能會將食用蠕蟲后的惡心、嘔吐和腹瀉解釋為食物中毒，但這些癥狀實際上是寄生蟲侵入腸壁所致。這種蠕蟲在人類腸道內(nèi)的生存或繁殖時間不能超過幾天(盡管它們在海洋哺乳動物中可以存活)。一旦他們死了癥狀就會緩解。

Industry experts have been good at removing worms from food before it is made available for consumption — but with the worms’ numbers growing, it’s becoming more difficult.

行業(yè)專家一直擅長于在食用前將蠕蟲從食物中清除，但隨著蠕蟲數(shù)量的增長，變得越來越困難。

While gross, the worms do not pose much of a health risk to humans — but they do to other animals.

這些蠕蟲雖然很惡心，但對人類健康危害不大，不過會對其他動物構(gòu)成威脅。

“One of the important implications of this study is that now we know there is this massive, rising health risk to marine mammals,” said Wood. “It’s not often considered that parasites might be the reason that some marine mammal populations are failing to bounce back. I hope this study encourages people to look at intestinal parasites as a potential cap on the population growth of endangered and threatened marine mammals.”

伍德說：“這項研究的一個重要意義是，我們現(xiàn)在知道，海洋哺乳動物面臨著巨大的、不斷上升的健康風險。”。“人們通常不認為寄生蟲可能是一些海洋哺乳動物種群無法反彈的原因。我希望這項研究能鼓勵人們將腸道寄生蟲視為瀕危，和受威脅海洋哺乳動物種群增長的潛在上限。”