A 6- to 8-day periodicity in cercarial shedding occurred in some Galba truncatula experimentally infected with Fasciola hepatica

Abstract

A retrospective study on a total of 669 Galba truncatula (three groups) experimentally infected with Fasciola hepatica was carried out to determine why 6- to 8-day interwave intervals, separating the successive waves of cercarial shedding, occurred with a regular pattern in some snails during the whole patent period. In the three groups of snails, the number of cercariae per shedding wave peaked at the second wave and subsequently decreased up to the fifth wave. The mean length of interwave intervals ranged from 6.8 to 7.8 days and only showed insignificant variations. The number of free cercariae recorded at the end of each interwave interval significantly decreased over the patent period. Similar findings were also noted for intraredial cercariae in the first redial generation and the first cohort of the second generation. By contrast, the number of intraredial cercariae significantly increased along the patent period from the second interwave interval. In the case of each interval separately considered, most numerical variations noted for free cercariae or for intraredial cercariae were insignificant. The periodicity of 6.8-7.8 days found for interwave intervals in the present study might correspond to the infradian-type rhythm already reported for the cercarial shedding of F. hepatica. However, snails showing such regular pattern in cercarial shedding along the patent period were few in number, and one may wonder about the reasons of such snails in the case of F. hepatica.