Composition and Distribution of Snail Fauna in Water Bodies around Irrigation Schemes of Benue River Valley, Yola Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Freshwater snails that act as intermediate host and some abiotic environmental factors plays a prominent roles in these infections. The objective of this paper as to assess the composition and distribution of the snail fauna in water bodies around irrigation schemes in the Benue River Valley, Yola area of Adamawa state, Nigeria using appropriate techniques. Data obtained reveals that the distribution of freshwater snails species, showed that a total of 1,620 snails were sampled, Njoboliyo had the highest number of snails with 373, followed by Lake Geriyo with 287, Dasin Hausa with 266, Rugange with 255, Dasin Bwattiye with 235, while Boronji had the least with 204 freshwater snails. The species include B. globosus, P. ovata, B. truncatus and B. reticulatus. The diversity index showed that H fell below the 1.5-3.5 range while the Evenness E showed a potential evenness between freshwater snail species in all sites of the communities with no exception.