Fei, my wife, had some oysters for the day before yesterday's dinner. After
she finished we saw a kind of worm about 2 cm long and 0.5 mm wide moving
in the oyster water on the plate. I wonder if anybody knows if there are
parasites in oysters that might be dangerous for humans. It seems unlikely
to me because oysters can be eaten raw in restaurants and no restaurant
owner wants to run the risk to be held liable for parasites in his/her
customers. But maybe this tiny critter was a parasite for the oyster only
(end host?) or a parasite for other oyster eating animals or just some food
the oyster had ingested but not digested yet. I tend to think the latter is
the most likely (and most pleasant too).
I would appreciate if anybody could give me some hints. Fei who is a
microbiologist and had taken a course in parasitology does not know about
oysters in particular but is worried enough by this little worm to quit
eating oysters even though she enjoyed them very much. Reading the archives
I found several threads about parasites in fish. Remembering what was said
there about parasites I don't feel easy to tell her an instinctively fed
organism can handle parasites as I would have before. I need some rock
solid scientific proof otherwise I don't need to share oysters anymore. (A
not all that bad idea because I am starting to enjoy them. There are losing
their nasty salty taste I encounter when I tried before and are getting
really tasty.)
Hope nobody minds that I am lazy just sending out this mail instead of
sitting down in the library and find out myself but I thought somebody
might have done this before and likes to share his/her findings.
Furthermore the answer to my question might be of interest to other non-veg
raw eaters too.

Curious wishes,

Mike