Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T08:43:02.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plagiorchis elegans: emergence, longevity and infectivity of cercariae, and host behavioural modifications during cercarial emergence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

C. A. Lowenberger  and
M. E. Rau
C. A. Lowenberger
Affiliation:
Institute of Parasitology, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3V9
M. E. Rau
Affiliation:
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3V9
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

We investigated changes in the behaviour of Stagnicola elodes associated with the emergence of Plagiorchis elegans cercariae. Within 15 min of the reduction in light intensity, which triggered the onset of cercarial emergence, infected snails moved to the top of the water column and remained there for 2–3 h. Seventy-nine percent of all cercariae that emerged from the snail did so during this period. Uninfected snails showed no such behavioural changes following the change in light intensity. Cercariae were released in a dense cloud around the snail at the water surface and dispersed passively. Within 3–4 h more than 80% of all cercariae had settled in the bottom 5 cm of the water column. The infectivity of cercariae increased from less than 20% upon emergence from the snail to greater than 75% 4–6 h post-emergence, and then declined steadily to below 5% by 24 h post-emergence. Cercarial longevity was greater than 30 h and exceeded the period of infectivity. This may be related to steadily falling endogenous glycogen levels. A delay in attaining maximum infectivity may represent an adaptive mechanism allowing time for cercarial dissemination, thus reducing superinfection, and subsequent parasite-associated mortality, of second intermediate hosts.

Keywords

Plagiorchis elegansStagnicola elodescercariaparasite-induced behaviour changesinfectivity
Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 109 , Issue 1 , July 1994 , pp. 65 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, P. A., Nowosielski, J. W. & Croll, N. A. (1976). The emergence of cercariae of Trichobilharzia ocellata and its relationship to the activity of its snail host. Lymnaea stagnalis. Canadian Journal of Zoology 54, 1481–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R. M. & Whitfield, P. J. (1975). Survival characteristics of the free-living cercarial population of the ectoparasitic digenean Transversotrema patialensis (Soparker, 1924). Parasitology 70, 295–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, R. M., Whitfield, P. J. & Mills, C. A. (1977). An experimental study of the population dynamics of an ectoparasitic digenean, Transversotrema patialense: the cercarial and adult stages. Journal of Animal Ecology 46, 555–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blankespoor, H. D. (1977). Notes on the biology of Plagiorchis noblei Park, 1936 (Trematoda: Plagiorchiidae). Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington 44, 44–50.Google Scholar
Cable, R. M. (1972). Behaviour of digenetic trematodes. In Behavioural Aspects of Parasite Transmission, (ed. Canning, E. U. & Wright, C. A.), pp. 1–17. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Carney, W. P. (1969). Behavioural and morphological changes in carpenter ants harboring dicrocoeliid metacercariae. American Midland Naturalist 82, 605–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, L. A. (1987). Vertical distribution of an estuarine snail altered by a parasite. Science 235, 1509–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Jong-Brink, M. (1990). How trematode parasites interfere with reproduction of their intermediate hosts, freshwater snails. Journal of Medical and Applied Malacology 2, 101–33.Google Scholar
Dobson, A. P. (1988). The population biology of parasiteinduced changes in host behavior. Quarterly Review of Biology 63, 139–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erasmus, D. A. (1972). The Biology of Trematodes. London: E. Arnold.Google Scholar
Evans, N. A. & Gordon, D. M. (1983). Experimental studies on the transmission dynamics of cercariae of Echinoparyphium recurvatum (Digenea: Echinostomatidae). Parasitology 87, 167–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genov, T. & Samnaliev, P. (1984). Biology, morphology and taxonomy of Plagiorchis elegans (Rudolphi, 1802) (Plagiorchiidae) in Bulgaria. In Fauna, Taksonomiyai Ekologiya na Khelminti po Ptitsi, (ed. Vasilvev, I.), pp. 75–114. Sofia, Bulgaria: Bulgarian Academy of Science.Google Scholar
Ginetsinskaya, T. A. (1968). Trematodes, Their Life Cycles, Biology, and Evolution. Leningrad: Nauka Publishers. (English version: 1988, Amerind Publishing Company. Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi.)Google Scholar
Holmes, J. C. & Bethel, W. M. (1972). Modification of intermediate host behaviour by parasites. In Behaviour Modification by Parasites (ed. Canning, E. U. & Wright, C. A.), pp. 123–147. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hurd, H. (1990). Physiological and behavioural interactions between parasites and their hosts. Advances in Parasitology 29, 271–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kavelaars, B. J. & Bourns, T. K. R. (1968). Plagiorchis peterborensis sp. n. (Trematoda: Plagiorchiidae), a parasite of Lymnaea stagnalis appressa, reared in the laboratory mouse, Mus musculus. Canadian Journal of Zoology 46, 135–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, S. B. & McCullough, F. S. (1951). The emergence of cercariae of Fasciola hepatica from the snail Lymnaea truncatula. Journal of Helminthology 25, 77–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, J. R. & Wilson, R. A. (1980). The survival of the cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni in relation to water temperature and glycogen utilization. Parasitology 81, 337–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lo, S., Russell, J. C. & Taylor, A. W. (1970). Determination of glycogen in small tissue samples. Journal of Applied Physiology 28, 234–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowenberger, C. A. & Rau, M. E. (1993). Plagiorchis elegans: requirements for metacercarial development to infectivity, and conditions required for excystment. Journal of the Helminthological Society of Washington 60, 67–71.Google Scholar
Macy, R. W. (1960). The life cycle of Plagiorchis vespertilionis parorchis, N. ssp. (Trematoda: Plagiorchiidae), and observations on the effects of light on the emergence of the cercariae. Journal of Parasitology 46, 337–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier, L. (1951). The influence of light on the emergence of Schistosoma douthitti cercariae from their snail host. Journal of Parasitology 37, 201–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pages, J. R. & Théron, A. (1990). Analysis and composition of cercarial emergence rhythms of Schistosoma haematobium, S. intercalatum, S. bovis, and their hybrid progeny. International Journal for Parasitology 20, 193–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearre, S. (1979). Niche modification in Chaetognatha infected with larval trematodes (Digenea). International Revue der Gesamten Hydrobiologie 64, 193–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoop, W. L. (1988). Trematode transmission patterns. Journal of Parasitology 74, 46–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shostak, A. W. & Esch, G. W. (1990). Photocycledependent emergence by cercariae of Halipegus occidualis from Helisoma anceps, with special reference to cercarial emergence patterns as adaptations for transmission. Journal of Parasitology 76, 790–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith Trail, D. R. (1980). Behavioral interactions between parasites and hosts; host suicide and the evolution of complex life cycles. American Naturalist 116, 77–91.Google Scholar
Stirewalt, M. A. & Fregeau, W. A. (1968). Effect of selected experimental conditions on penetration and maturation of cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni in mice. II. Parasite-related conditions. Experimental Parasitology 22, 73–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Styczynska-Jurewicz, E. (1962). The life cycle of Plagiorchis elegans and the revision of the genus Plagiorchis Luhe, 1889. Acta Parasitologica Polonica 12, 419–45.Google Scholar
Swennen, C. (1969). Crawling-tracks of trematode infected Macoma balthica (L.). Netherlands Journal of Sea Research 4, 376–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Théron, A. (1984). Early and late shedding patterns of Schistosoma mansoni cercariae: Ecological significance in transmission to human and murine hosts. Journal of Parasitology 70, 652–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Théron, A. (1989). Hybrids between Schistosoma mansoni and S. rodhaini: characterization by cercarial emergence rhythms. Parasitology 99, 225–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wagenbach, G. E. & Alldredge, A. L. (1974). Effect of light on the emergence pattern of Plagiorchis micracanthos cercariae from Stagnicola exilis. Journal of Parasitology 60, 782–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Webber, R. A., Rau, M. E. & Lewis, D. J. (1986). The effects of various light regimens on the emergence of Plagiorchis noblei cercariae from the molluscan intermediate host, Stagnicola elodes. Journal of Parasitology 72, 703–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar