Natural infection of deroceras laeve (Mollusca: gastropoda) with metastronbylid larvae in a transmission focus of abdominal angiostrongyliasis.
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.
Maurer
Rafael Lucyk
RL
Laboratório de Parasitologia Molecular, Instituto de Pequisas Biomédicas, Alegre, RS Brasil.
Graeff-Teixeira
Carlos
C
Thome
José Willibaldo
JW
Chiaradia
Luís Antônio
LA
Sugaya
Hiroko
H
Yoshimura
Kentaro
K
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