First report of Lymnaea columella Say, 1817 (Pulmonata: Lymnaeidae) naturally infected with Fasciola hepatica (Linnaeus,1758) (Trematoda: Digenea) in Argentina.
We report the first evidence of natural infection of Lymnaea columella with Fasciola hepatica in Argentina. A sample of 601 snails was collected in May 2003 in northeastern Corrientes, a province bounded on the north by Paraguay, on the east by Brazil and on the southeast by Uruguay. Among 500 examined snails, 44 (8.8%) were exclusively infected with F. hepatica. Parasite identification was based on morphological features of cercariae from snails, and of eggs and adult flukes from Wistar rats. We discuss the events suggesting that an enzootic transmission cycle of F. hepatica has been recently established in northeastern Corrientes.
Prepelitchi
Lucila
L
Unidad de Ecología de Reservorios y Vectores de Parásitos, Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. lucilap@bg.fcen.uba.ar
Kleiman
Florencia
F
Pietrokovsky
Silvia M
SM
Moriena
Ricardo A
RA
Racioppi
Oscar
O
Alvarez
José
J
Wisnivesky-Colli
Cristina
C
D000818:Animals; D001118:Argentina; D005210:Fasciola hepatica / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008195:Lymnaea / Q000469:parasitology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar