It is estimated that 19 million human cases of this infection exist in the Far East. The disease is widespread in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam.
Humans acquire the disease by eating raw fish.
Other reservoir hosts include cats, tigers, dogs, fox, badgers and mink. Again the life cycle is parallel to F. hepatica , with a few variations. No daughter redia are produced from the mother redia. Instead cercariae produced will leave the snail host to find and penetrate a suitable fish host. Once in the fish, the cercaria will become an encysted metacercaria.