The factors affecting metacercarial production of fasciola gigantica from lymnaea auricularia snail

Abstract EN

The present study revealed the effect of temperature, meracidia dose , and snails age on some parameters like prevalence (%) , prepatent period , the number of metacercaria produced , and the percentage of floating metacercaria.

The study revealed that the prevalence (%) was significantly increased with temperature decreasing and the increase of maracidia dose, as well as the prevalence (%) was significantly highest in largest snails.

The prepatent period was significantly decreased with the increase of temperature and the decrease of meracidia dose.

Also, the prepatent period was significantly longest in small snails.

Concerning the number of metacercariae production, the study reveals that the production of metacercaria from snails increased at (25 + 1) Cº while it decreased significantly at (19 + 1) Cº and (30+1)Cº and it also increased significantly with the increase of meracidia dose and the snails size.

The floating metacercaria percentage significantly increased with the increase of temperature but there was no significantan effect for meracidia dose and the size of snails.