4.5 Article

Extended survival and reproductive potential of single-sex male and female Schistosoma japonicum within definitive hosts

Journal

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR PARASITOLOGY
Volume 51, Issue 11, Pages 887-891

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2021.03.005

Keywords

Schistosoma japonicum; Single-sex infection; Survival; Reproduction; Elimination

Categories

Funding

  1. National Science Foundation of China [81971957]
  2. Jiangsu Provincial Project of Invigorating Health Care through Science, Technology and Education, China [wk018-001]
  3. Zoonosese and Emerging Livestock Systems (International Research Consortium on Animal Health) research grant
  4. BBSRC
  5. MRC
  6. ESRC
  7. NERC
  8. DSTL
  9. [DFID: BB/S013822/1]

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Research shows that unpaired female and male schistosomes can survive within their definitive host for at least 1 year and produce viable eggs after subsequent pairing, posing an additional biological challenge in achieving elimination of schistosomiasis.
Schistosomiasis is caused by dioecious helminths of the genus Schistosoma. Recent work indicated that unpaired female and male schistosomes can survive within their definitive host for at least 1 year, although the viability or fertility of these worms after subsequent pairing remained untested. We performed two experiments on laboratory mice, one with female Schistosoma japonicum exposure first and male schistosomes second and another vice versa. After surviving as single-sex unpaired forms for up to 1 year, 58.5% of male and 70% of female schistosomes were able to mate and produce viable eggs. This highlights an additional biological challenge in achieving elimination of schistosomiasis. (c) 2021 Australian Society for Parasitology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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