Schistosomiasis remains a major public health problem with estimated 240 million cases worldwide whereby more than 90% of these occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tanzania is ranked second after Nigeria in terms of disease burden with prevalence of infection as higher as 100% in some communities. We conducted a cross-sectional malacological survey to examine for abundance, identity and disease transm...

HEMICAL COMPOUNDS derived from living organisms are similar to non-biological substances in that their composition and structure can be characterized, and many can be directly synthesized by standard chemical methods. However, biological compounds are fundamentally different in that each has an underlying evolutionary history. We describe several compounds from an unusual source, the venoms of ...

In the late 1960s, Melanoides tuberculatus snails were introduced in Brazil from North/East Africa and Southeast Asia. The first records of specimens infected with cercariae were registered in Rio de Janeiro State in 2001. The present study reports the occurrence of M. tuberculatus infected with larval trematodes in Rio de Janeiro City. Bottom sediment was collected with dip nets and sieved thr...

results bulinus truncatus was detected in seven locations. in addition, melanoides tuberculata, which is also considered medically important, and physa acuta were detected. the prevalence of bulinus truncatus, melanoides tuberculata, and physa acuta was 6%, 5.5%, and 88.5%, respectively. background bulinus truncatus is the intermediate host of schistosoma haematobium, which is a causative agent...

BACKGROUND Given that increase in temperature may alter host-parasite relationships, the anticipated rise in temperature due to global warming might change transmission patterns of certain diseases. However, the extent to which this will happen is not well understood. METHODS Using a host-parasite system involving Bulinus globosus and Schistosoma haematobium, we assessed the effect of tempera...

Background: Our previous reports have used a novel method for imaging bioelectromagnetic energy as electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emanating from plant and animal tissue The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that living land snails exhibit EMFs that can be transmitted through their exoskeleton and can be detected utilizing a mixture of fine iron particles and Prussian Blue Stain (PBS Fe2). ...

Studies on common antigenicities were carried out by using rabbit sera immunized with Angiostrongylus cantonensis adult worms or the third stage larvae and antigens of various species of snails and vice versa by the immunoblotting technique. The results obtained are summarized as follows: (1) Common antigenicities between A. cantonensis adult worms and snails susceptible to A. cantonensis were ...

We compared the statistical power of two alternative sampling designs to detect changes in threatened and endangered snail species populations in the Mid-Snake River (Idaho). Our goal was to determine which sampling approach would have the best chance of detecting a change associated with different hydroelectric project management scenarios. We summarized the data as 1) the average number of sn...

Predators can affect the vertical distribution of mobile intertidal invertebrates in two ways: they can (1) cause greater mortality of prey at certain intertidal levels, and (2) induce prey to seek safer intertidal areas. In this study, we investigate whether low-intertidal and subtidal predators affect the intertidal distribution of two congeneric species of small herbivorous gastropods of nor...