Do deep sea fish have parasites?

Fish is rich in nutrients, especially deep-sea fish, which is good for the brain. However, some people believe that there are more parasites in marine fish. So do deep-sea fish have parasites? There are also parasites in the deep sea, but many of them have different living environments. Some are easily killed by high temperatures, and some die if they leave the sea water. Therefore, it is best to cook seafood and marine fish before eating them, which is also safer.

Seawater is not a no-go zone for parasites

Because some parasite eggs are killed by high concentrations of salt water, some people believe that it is impossible for parasites to survive in highly saline seawater. However, people who have this idea may not know that there are many types of "parasites", and their living environments and hosts are even more different. Although it is true that some parasites cannot live in a marine environment, there are quite a few parasites that live on the surface or in the bodies of marine fish.

It should be said that, like other animals, almost every marine fish can be infected by parasites. There are many known types of marine fish parasites. Fish diseases caused by these parasites, such as Cryptocaryonosis, Myxosporidiosis, and Heterodiscus, are problems that often need to be faced in marine fish farming.

Marine fish parasites threaten humans

However, whether marine fish can be infected by parasites is not the most concerned issue for diners. What people are most concerned about is whether these parasites will eventually infect humans through the route of eating raw fish.

To answer this question, we need to first introduce a pair of professional terms: intermediate host and final host. The animals that parasites parasitize in the larval stage are called intermediate hosts. Parasites need to use this type of host as an intermediary to infect their ultimate target - the final host. In the final host, the parasite will grow from a larva to an adult, or complete the reproduction through sexual reproduction.

Among the parasites carried by marine fish, some use marine fish as their final hosts. Since the living environment required by this type of parasite is very different from the human environment, the possibility of affecting human health is very small. But there are some marine fish parasites that only use marine fish as intermediate hosts, and their final hosts are marine mammals, such as dolphins, whales, sea lions, etc. This type of parasite that targets marine mammals is also capable of infecting humans, who are also mammals. Among them, Anisakis is the most notorious.