Research Information System
in: Echinococcosis, Tonay İnceboz, Editor, InTech, Rijeka, pp.1-16, 2017
Echinococcosis is a zoonotic helminth disease. First, description goes back to 1684 when
Francesco Redi has first described the scolex. Then, in 1700s, Philip Jacob Hartmann has
defined in an adult form. Since intercontinental travelling is very common, it has been an
important health problem in the last decades. Although it has been known for many years, it
keeps its peculiarity [1–3].
Echinococcus belongs to Cestoda (class) and the Taeniidae (family). There are four most common species: Echinococcus granulosus, Echinococcus multilocularis, Echinococcus vogeli and
Echinococcus oligarthrus. The most common one is E. granulosus, causing cystic echinococcosis (CE), whereas E. vogeli is the rarest species. E. multilocularis is also rare; however, it
is the most violent species causing alveolar echinococcosis (AE). E. vogeli and E. oligarthrus
cause polycystic echinococcosis (PE). There are other species of Echinococcus; Echinococcus
canadensis, Echinococcus equinus, Echinococcus ortleppi and Echinococcus shiquicus. There are
also many different genotypes of each species; E. granulosus has 10 genotypes (G1–G10),
whereas E. multilocularis has two genotypes (M1–M2) [4, 5].