Coracidia agglutination reaction of pseudophyllid cestodes and its application in cestode studies

The ability of cestode coracidia to agglutinate in homologous antiserum was established. The method of direct agglutination of coracidia (RDAC) in a culture of living larvae is described. The comparison of RDAC results in homologous and heterologous variants shows a dependence of the agglutination pattern on the degree of antiserum homology. By the example of RDAC of the cestodes Diphyllobothrium dentriticum and D. ditremum in polyvalent antisera and in antisera species-specific to D. dendriticum a possibility is shown of using RDAC in studies on species taxonomy of pseudophyllid cestodes.