Trematode infections of the freshwater snail family Thiaridae in the Khek River, Thailand.

The freshwater snail family Thiaridae was studied at five different locations: water sources for the Khek River, Thailand. Snail samples were collected by hand using counts per unit of time sampling method between December 2004 and October 2005. The physico-chemical quality of the water changed with the seasons and affected the sampling areas during both the dry season and the flood season. A total of 9,568 snail samples comprised of 14 species were found. These were 284 Tarebia granifera, 24 Melanoides tuberculata, 86 Thiara scabra, 3,295 Paracrostoma pseudosulcospira pseudosulcospira, 736 P. paludiformis paludiformis, 3,266 P. paludiformis dubiosa, 117 P. morrisoni, 304 Brotia (Brotia) binodosa binodosa, 1,250 B. (Brotia) microsculpta, 146 B. (Senckenbergia) wykoffi, 1 B. (Brotia) pagodula, 5 B. (Brotia) binodosa spiralis, 5 B. (Brotia) insolita and 49 B. (Brotia) manningi. The cercariae were investigated using shedding and crushing methods where they were categorized into two types and five species. The first type, Parapleurolophocercous cercariae, were comprised of Haplorchis pumilio Looss, 1899 and Centrocestus formosanus Nishigori, 1924. The second type, Xiphidiocercariae were comprised of Acanthatrium hitaense Koga, 1953, Loxogenoides bicolor Kaw, 1945 and Haematoloechus similis Looss, 1899. The cercarial infection rates in the above 5 species were 0.1% (5:9,568), 0.2% (15:9,568), 0.3% (24:9,568), 0.4% (37:9,568) and 0.1% (5:9,568), respectively. Five species of snails were susceptible to trematode infections. They were T. granifera, M. tuberculata, T. scabra, P. paludiformis paludiformis and B. (Senckenbergia) wykoffi; infections were found in 26.1% (74:284), 33.3% (8:24), 1.2% (1:86), 0.3% (2:736) and 0.7% (1:146), respectively.