title: The influence of water temperature and pH on the survival of Fasciola hepatica miracidia.
abstract: Experimental studies on the survival of Fasciola hepatica miracidia show no evidence that miracidial mortality varies with the pH of the medium, at least in the range 6.0-8.0. On the other hand, miracidial mortality is shown to vary with both the temperature of the medium and the age of the larvae. The mean expected life-span of the miracidium decreases from about 35 h at 6 degrees C to about 6 h at 25 degrees C. The Gompertz survival function provides a good description of the miracidial survivorship curves over the range of temperatures used, and we describe a maximum likelihood method of estimating the mean values of the parameters of this function, together with their approximate 95% confidence limits.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003470:Culture Media; D005210:Fasciola hepatica / Q000502:physiology*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D014867:Water