Cercarial production from Biomphalaria alexandrina infected with Schistosoma mansoni.

The present paper deals with longitudinal and cross-sectional methods of counting cercariae shed from Biomphalaria alexandrina in Egypt, both experimentally and naturally infected with schistosomes. By the longitudinal method, the daily output of cercariae was counted from the first shedding from experimentally infected snails and from the day of collection from naturally infected ones. The results show that the size of the snails at the time of shedding exerts a very large effect on the output of cercariae and that the numbers obtained in the laboratory are not representative of cercarial output in the field. By the cross-sectional method, the cercarial output in the first 24 hours from infected snails collected in different months from the field was counted. The results show that output is size-specific. When the size-specific output is adjusted to the size-composition of infected snails taken from the field, it is estimated that the daily output from infected snails in the field may be 957.7 cercariae. However, this number may vary with the season.