BACKGROUND The last study on snail population density in relation to rainfall pattern in Kigungu canoe landing and recreational sites on Lake Victoria shore was earlier carried out about fifteen years ago. This study also reviewed the influence of other environmental factors on the snails' infection rate. OBJECTIVE To reassess the density dynamic of Biomphalaria (B) choanomphala and Biomphala...

Anthropogenic stressors such as pollutants can modulate levels of parasitic infections in aquatic animals by suppressing host immunity or through some other mechanisms. One such mechanism could involve increases in either the quantity or quality of infective stages produced by parasites. We investigated the effect of exposure of infected snails, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, to different concentrat...

Parasites, in particular trematodes, are unseen but ubiquitous components of marine intertidal ecosystems. Although parasites are known to affect population dynamics and food web structure, their potential function as an unrecognized path of energy flow in these ecosystems is yet to be quantified. We use published data on rates at which trematodes produce free-swimming infective larvae (cercari...

the pond snail lymnaea auricularia serves as an intermediate host for many digenian species. in west azerbaijan province, northwestern iran, the cercariae infection investigation was undertaken in l. auricularia from may to november 2010. of 6759 collected lymnaeid snails, 370(5.5%) l. auricularia snails were identified. cercariae infection was found in a number of 276 (74.56 %) snails. the res...

BACKGROUND Trematodes are a diverse group of endoparasites which require molluscan and vertebrate animals as intermediate and definitive hosts in their life cycle. The present study was carried out to determine the diversity and geographic distribution of infection with trematodes'cercariae in the snail Lymnaea gedrosiana from north-west Iran. METHODS A total number of 6759 Lymnaeidae snails ...

In murine schistosomiasis, the highest levels of resistance to cercarial challenge are obtained by vaccination with radiation-attenuated cercariae. To identify candidate vaccine antigens relevant to the vaccine model, we examined parasite antigens recognized by antibodies from mice vaccinated with irradiated cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. To optimize recognition of a wide spectrum of antigen...

The cercariae and sporocysts (or rediae) of four trematode species are described from the intertidal snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus: a distome xiphidiocercaria assigned to the genus Renicola (family Renicolidae); a monostome xiphidiocercaria belonging either to the genus Microphallus or Megalophallus (family Microphallidae); a magnacercous cercaria of the genus Galactosomum (family Heterophyida...

BACKGROUND Human Echinostomiasis is an intestinal disease caused by the members of family Echinostomatidae parasites. The aim of present research was to identify echinostomatidae cercariae emitted by Lymnaea palustris snails from Mazandaran province in the north of Iran based on the morphological and morphometrical characteristics of the different stages of experimental parasite life cycle. M...

1. Individuals that live in groups benefit from increased foraging success and decreased predation. Protection from some types of parasites may provide an additional benefit of group-living. For fish, the extent to which shoaling can reduce an individual's risk of exposure to the infective stages of parasites is unknown. 2. We tested for antiparasite benefits of shoaling in fathead minnows expo...

The possible involvement of protein kinase C and Ca2+ metabolism in the proteolytic enzyme release from schistosome cercariae was studied. Cercariae were placed in dechlorinated tap water containing 0.37 mM calcium in the small glass petri dish and exposed to the stimuli (linoleic acid, phorbol esters, and Ca2+ ionophore) with or without inhibitors of protein kinase C or Ca2+ metabolism. The pr...