title: Natural infection of deroceras laeve (Mollusca: gastropoda) with metastronbylid larvae in a transmission focus of abdominal angiostrongyliasis.
abstract: Angiostrongylus costaricensis is a nematode parasitic of rodents. Man may become infected by ingestion of the third stage larvae produced within the intermediate hosts, usually slugs from the family Veronicellidae. An epidemiological study carried out in a locality in southern Brazil (western Santa Catarina State) where these slugs are a crop pest and an important vector for A. costaricensis has documented for the first time the natural infection of Deroceras laeve with metastrongylid larvae. This small limacid slug is frequently found amid the folds of vegetable leaves and may be inadvertently ingested. Therefore D. laeve may have an important role in transmission of A. costaricensis to man.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Parasitologia Molecular, Instituto de Pequisas Biomédicas, Alegre, RS Brasil.
authors.forename: Rafael Lucyk
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Graeff-Teixeira
authors.forename: José Willibaldo
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Thome
authors.forename: Luís Antônio
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Chiaradia
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugaya
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007411:Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission; D008974:Mollusca / Q000469:parasitology; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000635:transmission