Freshwater snails are known to serve as first intermediate hosts for various parasitic diseases such as schistosomosis and fasciolosis. Snails were collected on several occasions in the proximity of Pretoria, South Africa and their cercarial sheddings were studied. This article describes three different types of cercariae shed by the freshwater snail, Lymnaea natalensis, viz. a fork-tailed cerc...

Anthropogenic factors can have simultaneous positive and negative effects on parasite transmission, and thus it is important to quantify their net effects on disease risk. Net effects will be a product of changes in the survival and traits (e.g., susceptibility, infectivity) of both hosts and parasites. In separate laboratory experiments, we exposed cercariae of the trematode Echinostoma trivol...

BACKGROUND Chromatin structure can control gene expression and can define specific transcription states. For example, bivalent methylation of histone H3K4 and H3K27 is linked to poised transcription in vertebrate embryonic stem cells (ESC). It allows them to rapidly engage specific developmental pathways. We reasoned that non-vertebrate metazoans that encounter a similar developmental constrain...

Here, we observed the uptake of membrane-impermeant molecules by cercariae as they penetrate the skin and are transformed into schistosomula. We propose that membrane-impermeant molecules, Lucifer Yellow, Propidium iodide and Hoechst 33258 enter the parasite through both thenephridiopore and the surface membrane and then diffuse throughout the body of the parasite. We present a hypothesis that ...

The toxicity of cadmium and zinc at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 100 microg/l was investigated against the activity of Diplostomum spathaceum (Rudolphi, 1819) cercariae. Over a 24 h exposure period a significant reduction in cercarial activity occurred in solutions of cadmium, zinc, and a mixture of cadmium and zinc at all concentrations. Reduced cercarial activity also occurred in all to...

INTRODUCTION: The activity of garlic oil extract against Schistosoma japonicum cercariae was evaluated. METHODS: The in vitro and in vivo cercaricidal activities against S. japonicum larvae were determined. RESULTS: Exposure to ≥ 10-6 (v/v) garlic emulsions for 30 min led to 100% cercariae mortality; pre-exposure treatment with ≥ 10-4 (v/v) garlic emulsions showed 100% preventive efficacy ...

The emergence pattern of Schistosoma curassoni cercariae from Bulinus umbilicatus, whose adult worms parasitize bovine, caprine, and ovine ungulates in Niger, is of a circadian type with a mean emission time at 0855 hr +/- 1 hr 6 min, characteristic of the schistosome species parasitizing domestic or wild cattle. The comparison of this cercarial emergence pattern with those of the other 3 sympa...

1. The morbidity of pulmonary distomiasis among the school children in the plains of the Prefecture of Shinchiku is 4.3 per cent, while in the mountainous regions among the savages it reaches in some districts 50 per cent. 2. Seventeen species of cercariae were discovered in fresh water mollusks in the Prefecture of Shinchiku, Formosa. But it was impossible to ascertain from morphological chara...

the present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of developmental stages of fasciola gigantica infection in lymnaea snails and their populations in sylhet region of bangladesh. a total of 1865 lymnaea snails were collected and examined, of which 56 (3%) were found to having infected with developmental stages of fasciola gigantica. only 4.08% infected of 515 snails were collected fr...

The ability of the cercariae of Trichobilharzia sp., the commonest avian schistosome in South Africa, to cause dermatitis in man is confirmed, and their progress through and resultant histopathology in rodent skin are documented. These cercariae reach the subcutaneous tissue within one hour after exposure, and some migrate to the lungs. Between 46 and 97 h later, those stranded in the skin have...