Parasites of freshwater snail

The study was carried out to investigate the parasite of the freshwater snail Pilaovata .A total of 30 samples were collected from Ovia River at Iguoriakhifor a period of 4 months from October to January. The snails were transported to the Parasitology Laboratory, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria for examination. Of the 30 snail samples collected, 4 were
naturally infected giving a prevalence of 13.3% only. The observation in this study is that the parasites found in the snails were the trematode larval stages (sporocysts). A
total of8 parasites (sporocysts) were recovered from 3 specimens of Pilaovata which were observed in the month of October 2021giving a mean intensity of2.7±1.5 and 3
parasites (sporocysts) were recovered from 1 infected snail giving a mean intensity of 3±0.00 in the month of November. However, no infection was recorded in the months
of December and January. The sporocysts were mostly found in the intestine,muscle and mantle regions of pilaovata. It can be concluded that Pilaovata serves as an intermediate host of this yet to be identified trematode sincethey harbor the
intramolluscanstage (sporocyst) of the parasite. Further studies should be carried out to identify the other stages of this trematode occurring in Pilaovatain Nigeria, and to
ascertain the possible zoonotic status of the parasite.