title: Comments on human eurytremiasis in Brazil.
abstract: Eurytremiasis is an important parasitic disease of cattle that was recently suggested to be a neglected and emerging human disease in Brazil. Based on a misinterpretation of the life cycle of the parasite, it was suggested that a great number of people could be infected with this fluke in the country. In the present letter, aspects of the life cycle of Eurytrema spp. are revisited and clarified. The mechanism of transmission previously reported for the few accidental human cases involved the ingestion of raw or undercooked insects (grasshoppers and crickets) harboring the infective metacercariae. In reality, the zoonotic potential of Eurytrema species is extremely low, and human eurytremiasis is not, and probably never will be, a zoonotic disease in countries where entomophagy is not a common food habit.
authors.affiliation: Hudson Alves Pinto, Alan Lane de Melo, Laboratório de Taxonomia e Biologia de Invertebrados, Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30123-970, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Hudson Alves
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: Hudson Alves Pinto, Alan Lane de Melo, Laboratório de Taxonomia e Biologia de Invertebrados, Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 30123-970, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alan Lane
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: de Melo
keywords: Eurytrema; Metacercariae; Parasite transmission; Tropical medicine; Zoonosis