Investigating the Invasive Contamination of Lymnaeidae Snails with Trematodes According to Species and Sampling Location in Lorestan province, Iran, Middle East

Mirfendereski, Ramtin; Shemshadi, Bahar; Hashemi, Saeid; Shirali, Salome

doi:10.22092/ari.2025.368338.3510

Investigating the Invasive Contamination of Lymnaeidae Snails with Trematodes According to Species and Sampling Location in Lorestan province, Iran, Middle East

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

¹ Department of Pathobiology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Parasitology, Borujerd Branch Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran

³ Department of Biotechnology, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

10.22092/ari.2025.368338.3510

Abstract

Radicine snails are of considerable medical and veterinary importance as termatodes’ vectors such snails are responsible for transmission of the zoonotic trematodes including Schistosoma turkestanicum and Fasciola gigantica in Iran. This study investigates Lymnaedae infestation with termatodes considering species and sampling location 1.700 snails were collected from the suburbs of Borujerd, Khorram Abad, and Dorud in Lorestan, Iran from April to August 2018 Round snails were separated and Snails species were identified based on measuring length, width, spire, valve using a shape of the radula as identification keys. To separate the radula, the soft tissue of snails was removed from the shell using forceps and incubated in a 7% potassium solution for 24 hours at room temperature. The isolated radula was placed in 15% acetic acid. Then it was placed in Mallory's dye solution for 3 minutes and washed with the oxalic acid solution. After dehydrating with 96-degree ethanol, it was examined with a light microscope. To investigate trematode larvae in snails, 10% of them (a total number of 170 Lymnaeidae snails) were selected for this investigation by using the crushing method on a slide. The morphological results showed in Dorud and Borujerd, the highest distribution of Lymnaea gedrosiana was 24.09% and 19.72%, and the lowest distribution of Bulinus truncatus was 4.72% and 4.48%, respectively. Lymnaea species were the most abundant in plain villages, while Bithynia and Physa were seen more in mountain villages. In Khorram Abad, the highest distribution is related to Lymnaea truncatula (20.15%), and the lowest is related to Lymnaea stagnalis (5.56%). The genera Bithynia and Physa show a significant increase in mountainous Khorram Abad villages compared to the Borujerd and Dorud. The total rate of Lymneidae snails infection with termatodes was 32.94%, which includes 18.23% of samples in Borujerd, 8.23% in Dorud, and 6.47% in Khorramabad. According to chi-square with (p<0.05), a significant difference was seen in the rate of Lymneade snails’ trematode infection. In this regard, the Borujerd region showed the highest rate of infection while Khorram Abad revealed the lowest.

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