Swimmer's itch control: Timely waterfowl brood relocation significantly reduces an avian schistosome population and human cases on recreational lakes.

ABSTRACT: Swimmer's itch (SI) is a dermatitis in humans caused by cercariae of avian and mammalian schistosomes which emerge from infected snails on a daily basis. Mitigation methods for SI have long been sought with little success. Copper sulfate application to the water to kill the snail hosts is the historically employed method, but is localized, temporary, and harmful to many aquatic species. Here, we test an alternative method to control Trichobilharzia stagnicolae, a species well-known to cause SI in northern Michigan and elsewhere in North America. Summer relocation of broods of the only known vertebrate host, common merganser (Mergus merganser), greatly reduced snail infection prevalence the following year on two large, geographically separated lakes in northern Michigan. Subsequent years of

SUBMITTER: Blankespoor CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10868848 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature