THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF SOME IRANIAN SNAILS TO VARIOUS LOCAL AND FOREIGN SPECIES OF TREMATODES

Abstract

Studies undertaken on the susceptibility of various local snails to some of the important human and animal trematodes found in Iran have revealed that Bulinus truncatus, the distribution of which is restricted to the province of Khuzestan in the southwest of Iran is the intermediate host of Shistosoma haematobium, S. bovis and Paramaphistomum microbothrium in this area.This snail is also susceptible to strains of S. haematobium from Somalia and Egypt. It was also shown that Lymnaea gedrosiana is susceptible to and acts as an intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica, F.gigantica and Ornithobilharzia turkestanicum. Extensive information regarding the intermediate host- parasite relationship was collected for S. haematobium, S.bovis and O.turkestanicum. The degree of susceptibility of the above-mentioned snails to their proper trematodes was also investigated. It was concluded that any effort toward the control of these two snails would result in the reduction of the prevalence of 6 important trematodes found among man and animals in the infested areas.