Uptake and distribution of copper sulphate and its effect on the respiration rate of the hemocyanin-producing freshwater snail Lymnaea natalensis.

Abstract

Copper sulfate was one of the earliest compounds suggested as a molluscicide and although several new compounds have since been developed, copper sulfate is still widely used against freshwater snail intermediate hosts of trematode parasites causing bilharzia. However, the toxic effect that copper sulfate may have on these species has not yet been investigated adequately. This incomplete picture of the action of copper sulfate on freshwater snails is further complicated by the fact that some of these snail species have hemocyanin (a protein containing copper) as respiration pigment. Because of the existence of a copper metabolic pathway, these species may handle external copper differently from those species with hemoglobin as respiration pigment. In the present study, the uptake of external copper in the form of copper sulfate, as well as the effect of this ion on respiration rate, was investigated in Lymnaea natalensis, the intermediate host of Fasciola gigantica. This snail possesses hemocyanin as respiratory pigment.