Biomphalaria glabrata (Pulmonata: Planorbidae): A Potential Second Molluscan Intermediate Host of A Human Intestinal Fluke, Echinostoma cinetorchis (Trematoda: Echinostomatidae)

The present study examines the potential involvement of Biomphalaria glabrata, a known molluscan intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni, in the life cycle of Echinostoma cinetorchis, one of the echinostomes that are ubiquitous parasites of vertebrates and are of importance in human and veterinary medicine and wildlife diseases. Echinostomes can be maintained easily and inexpensively in the laboratory and provide good models for biological research ranging from the molecular to the organismal. In the present study, no echinostome cercariae were released from the B. glabrata experimentally infected with E. cinetorchis miracidia, whereas all the Biomphalaria snails infected with E. cinetorchis cercariae were found to be infected with the metacercariae. This is the first report that B. glabrata can experimentally serve as the second intermediate host of E. cinetorchis, and that it might be employed as one of the target molluscs for establishing a biological research model with E. cinetorchis in the laboratory.