Copepod survival in water bowls exposed to typical Chadian ambient temperatures

Abstract

Guinea Worm Disease (GWD), caused by the nematode Dracunculus medinensis, has been detected with increasing incidence among dogs in Chad, Africa. Cyclopoid copepods (freshwater crustaceans) are intermediate hosts for D. medinensis. Currently, the route(s) of D. medinensis transmission to dogs is still unknown but drinking from unprotected water sources would pose a risk. Dogs have access to water dishes provided for domestic animals and depending on the source of water, these dishes could harbor infected copepods, thereby acting as a source of transmission. To determine how long copepods survive in water dishes when exposed to Chadian ambient temperatures (41.1°C), copepods were placed in three different container types (plastic, glass, and metal) and heated to 40°C. Our results indicate that under simulated Chadian temperatures, metal dishes result in the highest rate of copepods death in the shortest period of time (2hrs) and were the only container to reach 100% copepod mortality. Conversely, plastic dishes exhibited the lowest mortality of copepods. These results indicate that the type of dish used when supplying water for animals in Chad is an important consideration in terms of preventing or interrupting transmission of D. medinensis among dogs. Support or Funding Information Funding for this work was provided by The Carter Center, University of Georgia, and NIH MARC Program (Grant Number: 2-T34-GM083980-11). We thank R. Bringolf and R. Ratajczak for providing laboratory space. Copepod Mortality in Different Dish Types during Set Time Intervals'Metal dishes had the highest percentage of copepod mortality in the shortest amount of time.•100% of copepods died in metal dishes after 4hrs of exposure.•Copepod mortality remained <50% in plastic dishes even after 8hrs of exposure to a 40°C heat source. Relationship between water temperature and percentage of copepod mortality.•Water temperature was a significant factor in copepod mortality (t=8.076, P<0.05) This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.