Seasonal variation in rates of sporocyst and metacercarial infection by Brachylaima cribbi in helicid and hygromiid land snails on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
A. R. Butcher A B and D. I. Grove AA Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville, SA 5011, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: andrew.butcher@imvs.sa.gov.au
Australian Journal of Zoology 53(6) 375-382 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO05054
Submitted: 2 September 2005 Accepted: 10 November 2005 Published: 6 January 2006
Abstract
Brachylaima cribbi is a terrestrial trematode parasite of humans and other mammals, birds and reptiles, with helicid and hygromiid summer-aestivating land snails acting as first and second intermediate hosts. Beginning in April, seasonal variations in rates of sporocyst and metacercarial infection by B. cribbi were studied in Cochlicella acuta, Cernuella virgata and Theba pisana over 1 year at four ecologically diverse sites on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia. The overall mean sporocyst prevalence rate in April was 2.7%. Sporocyst prevalences peaked during spring (10–78% for C. acuta, 12–44% for C. virgata and 10–18% for T. pisana). Metacercarial infection rates varied markedly from 10% to 98% at the start of the study. Overall metacercarial infection rates peaked with winter rains for T. pisana (average 50% infected) and in spring for C. acuta and C. virgata (average 80% infected) then declined in summer for all species. The average numbers of metacercariae per infected snail over the study period were 5.4 for C. virgata, 3.9 for C. acuta and 2.2 for T. pisana, with maximum numbers in winter or spring. Conditions on the Yorke Peninsula favour hyperinfection with this parasite.
Anderson, R. M. , and May, R. M. (1979a). Population biology of infectious diseases: Part I. Nature 280, 361–367.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Baker, G. H. (1988). Life history, population dynamics and polymorphism of Cernuella virgata (Mollusca: Helicidae). Australian Journal of Zoology 36, 497–512.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Hinz, E. , Saowakontha, S. , and Pipitgool, V. (1994). Opisthorchiasis control in northeast Thailand: proposal for a new approach. Applied Parasitology 35, 118–124.
| PubMed |
Snyder, S. D. , and Esch, G. W. (1993). Trematode community structure in the pulmonate snail Physa gyrina. Journal of Parasitology 79, 205–215.
| PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
Sturrock, R. F. , Diaw, O. T. , Talla, I. , Niang, M. , Piau, J. P. , and Capron, A. (2001). Seasonality in the transmission of schistosomiasis and in populations of its snail intermediate hosts in and around a sugar irrigation scheme at Richard Toll, Senegal. Parasitology 123(Suppl.), S77–S89.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
Woolhouse, M. E. (1991). On the application of mathematical models of schistosome transmission dynamics. I. Natural transmission. Acta Tropica 49, 241–270.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
Woolhouse, M. E. (1996). Mathematical models of transmission dynamics and control of schistosomiasis. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 55, 144–148.
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)
Yoder, H. R. , and Coggins, J. R. (1998). Larval trematode assemblages in the snail Lymnaea stagnalis from southeastern Wisconsin. Journal of Parasitology 84, 259–268.
| PubMed |
![](../../media/share/OpenURL_Image.gif)