Impact of Agriculture on Echinostoma Infection in Ramshorn Snails (Planorbella corneus) of Crawford County

Walters, Rachel

Impact of Agriculture on Echinostoma Infection in Ramshorn Snails (Planorbella corneus) of Crawford County

Persistent URL

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/56747

Author(s)

Walters, Rachel

Date Issued

April 26, 2023

Abstract

The widespread use of agrochemicals around the world can lead to many unintended impacts on the environment. In aquatic systems, nutrient inputs caused by agrochemical runoff can lead to increases in primary production, causing a cascade of changes that can impact community level interactions as well as disease and transmission dynamics. Snail-trematode infections, which are present around the world, are one type of aquatic disease system with the potential to be affected by anthropogenic nutrient additions. Snail-trematode diseases have the potential to infect and harm several organisms including amphibians, rodents, birds, and humans. Two such disease systems present in Crawford County are Echinostoma spp. (an intestinal fluke) and Ribeiroia ondatrae (a trematode parasite known for causing limb malformations in amphibians). This experiment was designed to examine the impact of agriculture on Echinostoma infections in ramshorn snails (Planorbella corneus) of Crawford County, and compared snails collected from Heagy’s Orchard with those from Bousson Environmental Research Reserve. Snails were collected from each site over a five week period from October to November, and screened in the laboratory for trematode parasites. Both the infection status of collected snails and the average number of trematodes found during shedding were recorded. The hypothesis for this study was that Echinostoma infections would be higher at Heagy’s Orchard, compared to Bousson Environmental Research Reserve, due to the use of agrochemicals on the agricultural property. This prediction was confirmed, with Heagy’s Orchard having higher infection prevalence compared to Bousson (51.61% compared to 13.33%), as well as Heagy’s having higher infection abundance (2.65 echinostomes shed per snail from Heagy’s compared to 0.56 from Bousson). These results have important implications for wildlife health in Crawford County as well as larger public health implications for snail-trematode systems around the world.

Major

Biology

Honors

Biology, 2023

First Reader(s)

Venesky, Matthew D.