Abstract
Schistosomiasis as a neglected disease is second to malaria in its adverse effect to public health and socioeconomics impact in the tropics and sub-tropical of the developing countries where 90% of 249 million people affected are found in Africa. Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya is infested with Biomphalaria spp. and the research set out to find their susceptibility to Schistosoma mansoni miracidia. Vector snails’ samples were taken from endemic region of Mwea irrigation farmlands and were morphological identified and then cultured. The miracidia exposed snails were transferred into aquaria and after four weeks of exposure they were examined for cercaria shedding twice every week under direct sunlight illumination. It was found that Mwea irrigation scheme was dominantly infested by Biomphalaria pfeifferi. From the morphological parameters of B. pfeifferi it was found that there was no statistical difference in physical characteristics between resistant and susceptible populations. The results in this study showed that the mean value of infection for the Field, F1 and F2 snail samples were 36.6 ± 3.72, 1.93 ± 1.46, 0.36 ± 0.049 respectively and the infection rate decreased from the field snail samples through F2 snail samples. This suggested that the exhibited resistant traits may be due to snail internal defense mechanisms rather than morphological characteristics and this could be thought that the various levels of B. pfeifferi susceptibility to S. mansoni is attributed to genetic variations within a population. Finally, the findings generated in this study, under laboratory condition, suggest that S. mansoni resistant population of B. pfeifferi can be isolated and mass reared with a view of diversifying biological control measures of the vector in Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is a major neglected disease in the tropical region and has been found second to malaria in its adverse effect to public health and socioeconomics impact the tropicals and sub-tropical of the developing countries. 249 million people are affected by the diseases worldwide and of these 90% requiring treatment reside in the Africa [1, 2]
Africa accounts for majority of disease incidence with poverty associated with schistosomiasis and Kenya has about more than six million people infected, accounting for approximately 23% of the total population, who are infected with urinary or intestinal schistosomiasis [7, 9]
Webster and Newton had reported that susceptibility of Biomphalaria ssp. to S. mansoni infection was inherited character [28, 29]
Summary
Schistosomiasis is a major neglected disease in the tropical region and has been found second to malaria in its adverse effect to public health and socioeconomics impact the tropicals and sub-tropical of the developing countries. 249 million people are affected by the diseases worldwide and of these 90% requiring treatment reside in the Africa [1, 2]. There are numerous intermediate host snail species that serve as obligatory hosts for the schistosome parasite larval stage (Miracidia) which infects humans. They act as environmental reservoirs of the disease and ensuring sustained transmission cycle. Biomphalaria sudanica and B. pfeifferi are the known major vectors of S. mansoni while Bulinus africanus and Bulinus globosus for S. haematobium [10] These snail intermediate hosts are predominantly found in fresh water bodies like lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, irrigation canals and dams. All Schistosomiasis endemic countries are encouraged to increase snail vector control efforts and move towards elimination as required by the World Health Organization (WHO) roadmap for the global control of the neglected tropical diseases [14]. The aim of this study was to identify resistance and susceptible of vector snails populations in Kenya Mwea rice irrigation region
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