Miracidial infectivity of snail host (Bulinus truncatus) in the laboratory

Abstract

Miracidial infectivity rate of snail Bulinus truncatus collected from Agulu Lake was studied in the laboratory. The snails were maintained in the laboratory and eggs deposited were allowed to hatch and dates noted until snails of different ages were produced. These snails were consequently exposed to miracidia hatched from eggs collected from urine of patients known to have active S. haematobium infections. Infection of snails in the laboratory showed that the miracidia can penetrate snail of any age. For the snails of ages 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks, 15 (60%), 13 (52%), 12 (48%) and 14 (56%) miracidia respectively penetrated. The study showed that 54 out of 100 (54%) of miracidia penetrated the snail Bulinus truncatus while 46 out of 100 (46%) miracidia did not penetrate the snail species. Penetration was found to be independent of the age of snail (÷² = 7.8, df=3). The implication of the findings to the effort of the disease control is discussed.

Keywords: Bulinus truncatus, miracidia, age of snail, S. haematobium, laboratory.

Nigerian Journal of Parasitology Vol. 29 (2) 2008: pp. 77-79