Storage and incubation of Echinostoma revolutum eggs recovered from wild Branta canadensis, and their infectivity to Lymnaea tomentosa snails.

Abstract

Echinostoma revolutum eggs recovered from naturally infected wild Canada geese (Branta canadensis) were cold stored (4-6 degrees C) for up to 72 weeks. Successful hatching followed incubation for from 6 to 8 days at an optimum temperature of between 25 and 30 degrees C. A partial life cycle from adult worm to metacercarial encystment in Lymnaea tomentosa snails was completed in the laboratory. Snails were infected both by free miracidia and by ingestment of unhatched embryonated eggs. Infection was equally successful in environmental temperature ranges from 10 to 25 degrees C, and at challenge levels of 2, 5 or 10 embryonated eggs per snail. Exposure to 10 eggs was lethal. Ingestion by snails of embryonated eggs with successful infection at 10 degrees C suggests that embryonated eggs may be used to infect wild snails when the environmental water temperature has reached 10 degrees C.