Stressed snails release Angiostrongylus cantonensis (rat lungworm) larvae in their slime.

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the influence of stress on release of Angiostrongylus cantonensis larvae from a snail host, Parmarion martensi. We subjected 140 infected, wild-caught P. martensi to three stress-inducing treatments (heat, molluscicide, physical disturbance) and an unstressed control treatment for 24 h, after which larval presence and abundance in the slime were quantified by qPCR targeting the ITS1 region of the parasite's DNA, and compared among treatments. The significance of stress and host infection load on larval release was determined by generalized linear mixed models and permutation tests. The results indicated that stress significantly increased the probability of larval presence in slime and the number of larvae released, and highly infected snails we

SUBMITTER: Rollins RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10728333 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature