Differentiation of Taenia saginata and Taenia solium by enzyme electrophoresis.

Forty-four Taenia saginata and seven T. solium specimens were collected in Nigeria. Extracts of these worms and of their metacestodes were compared by enzyme electrophoresis. The mobility of glucose phosphate isomerase was consistently faster with T. saginata than with T. solium. Extracts of the strobilate and cysticercus forms of the same species gave identical results. It was thus possible to distinguish clearly between material of either species.