Revenge of the Fishball: The Magnificent Fish Tapeworm
Scandinavians brought the creature to the midwestern United States as they left their homeland and moved to the lake regions of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the 1800s (4). As the sewage of sturdy Norwegians and what-have-yous contaminated the lakes of the Midwest, tiny copepods ingested the eggs. These little crustaceans would be consumed by predatory freshwater fish such as pike, carp, salmon, perch, turbot and pickerel and the tapeworm larva would embed itself in their muscle or viscera. The larval form of the tapeworm, the plerocercoid, makes its final home in the small intestine of humans or bears when the fish is eaten in a raw or undercooked state. The tapeworm can live quite comfortably there, in relative parasitic harmony with its host for several decades.