During its life cycle, the helminth parasite Schistosoma mansoni uses the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata as an intermediate host to reproduce asexually generating cercariae for infection of the human definitive host. Following invasion of the snail, the parasite develops from a miracidium to a mother sporocyst and releases excretory-secretory products (ESPs) that likely influence the ou...

Non-native species and habitat degradation are two major catalysts of environmental change and often occur simultaneously. In freshwater systems, degradation of adjacent terrestrial vegetation may facilitate introduced species by altering resource availability. Here we examine how the presence of intact riparian cover influences the impact of an invasive herbivorous snail, Tarebia granifera, on...

Geographic information system (GIS-based modeling of an intermediate host snail species environmental requirements using known occurrence records can provide estimates of its spatial distribution. When other data are lacking, this can be used as a rough spatial prediction of potential snail-borne disease transmission areas. Furthermore, knowledge of abiotic factors affecting intra-molluscan par...

The genetic population structures of the freshwater snail Bulinus globosus and its trematode parasite Schistosoma haematobium from 8 river sites in the Zimbabwean highveld were compared using randomly amplified DNA (RAPD) markers. There was significant variability between snail populations collected at different sites, but schistosome populations only showed differentiation at a wider geographi...

l i h t c t c n b l l u t o ( a t Some freshwater snail species are severe pests to human health or agriculture. We tested the hypothesis that the fish Mylopharyngodon piceus, the black carp, may serve as a biological control agent of two pest snails, Physella acuta (a bank-dwelling snail) and Melanoides tuberculata (a substratum-dwelling snail). Experiments were carried out in the laboratory a...

The morphology of cercariae of freshwater snails from Erawan Waterfall, Erawan National Park, Kanchanaburi Province was studied between December 2002 and August 2003. The snail samples were collected by handpicking using a counts per unit of time sampling method. The cercariae, larva stage of a trematode, were investigated using the shedding method where they were categorized into three groups ...

Opisthorchis viverrini infection is associated with human cholangiocarcinoma and northeast Thailand has the highest incidence of this disease in the world. Bithynia siamensis goniomphalos is the major freshwater snail intermediate host of O. viverrini in this area and an analysis based on geographical information systems was used to determine the effect of variation in soil surface salt on the ...

-Although Snail Kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis) in Florida and Venezuela fed mostly on Pomacea snails, I documented three alternative foods. In Florida, kites fed on five species of small turtles, but especially on Sternotherus odoratus and Kinosternon bauri. During the height of a drought, one kite in Florida fed on a small aquatic snail (Viviparus georgianus) for 5 weeks.In Venezuela, freshwate...

To estimate isotopic changes caused by trematode parasites within a host, we investigated changes in the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis infected by trematode larvae. We measured carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes within the foot, gonad, and hepatopancreas of both infected and uninfected snails. There was no significant difference in the delta13C an...

Sometimes life is just too stressful. Whether you’re a freshwater snail struggling to breathe in a dwindling puddle or a student facing an assessment that could change your future, it can be hard to form memories when the pressure is on; even the smartest can struggle. ‘We have been exploring how stress alters both memory formation and the ability to recall memory for a number of years’, says K...