Schistosoma mattheei ova were collected from cattle in different localities in South Africa and after hatching, miracidia were used to infest Bulinus (Physopsis) globosus. Cercariae harvested from these snails were used to infest the definitive host Praomys (Mastomys) coucha and eggs from the resulting female S. mattheei were collected. These ova were compared with a Schistosoma haematobium X S...

This study used Balb/c mice to examine the longevity of Zygocotyle lunata in a murine host. Of 11 mice, each exposed to 20 Z. lunata cysts, six were infected with a total of 12 worms from 11 to 24 weeks postinfection (PI). Live worms recovered at 24 weeks PI had a mean body area of about 25 mm2. These worms produced viable eggs with well-developed miracidia following embryonation in artificial ...

The vectorial capacity of Biomphalaria pfeifferi from Ndiangue, Senegal, was investigated with an allopatric isolate of Schistosoma mansoni from Nkolbisson, Cameroon. The snail infection rate after exposure to a single miracidium per snail (MD1) was 56. 3 %, and 91.6%, for snails exposed to 5 miracidia per snail (MD5). The minimum pre-patent period was 21 days. The mean total cercarial producti...

Natural infections of Galba truncatula with Haplometra cylindracea were followed from 2001 to 2009 to determine if their characteristics were similar when snails came from water collections frequented by Bufo bufo or by frogs and newts for their egg-laying. Snail samples were collected from both types of sites to count shed cercariae for three days and also free cercariae when snails were disse...

15 Gregory, T.R. (2003) Genome size estimates for two important freshwater molluscs, the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and the schistosomiasis vector snail (Biomphalaria glabrata).Genome46, 841–844 16 Goldman, M.A. et al. (1984) Chromosomal evolution in planorbid snails of the genera Bulinus and Biomphalaria. Malacologia 25, 427–446 17 Knight, M. et al. (1998) Expressed sequence tags (EST...

From complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of Fasciola hepatica available in Genbank, specific primers were designed for a conserved and repetitive region of this trematode. A pair of primers was used for diagnosis of infected Lymnaea columella by F. hepatica during the pre-patent period simultaneously with another pair of primers which amplified the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rD...