The contamination of wild watercress with Fasciola hepatica in central France depends on the ability of several lymnaeid snails to migrate upstream towards the beds

Abstract

As most natural watercress beds in central France are located upstream of the permanent habitats of two lymnaeid species, Galba truncatula and Omphiscola glabra, field investigations were made from 1999 to 2004 on 67 beds to determine why the contamination of watercress with Fasciola hepatica is irregular over time in these sites, while definitive hosts, especially lagomorphs, are regularly found infected around them. Snails are able to migrate upstream in winter and spring towards the beds, and a 4-year survey demonstrated the existence of annual variation in the colonization of these sites by snails. In the 45 beds irregularly contaminated with F. hepatica over time, 37.7–62.2%, according to the year, were not populated by lymnaeids, in spite of the presence of snail populations downstream. G. truncatula was found alone in 8.8–13.3% of sites and was the first colonizing snail in 24.3–33.3% when the two lymnaeid species successively settled in these waterholes. The colonizing ability of O. glabra was more limited, as it was observed alone in 2.2% of beds and was the first colonizing snail in only 2.2–20% of them. The distances covered by these snails significantly increased with increasing migration time. After migration, a few overwintering snails (3.8% of G. truncatula and 6.8% of O. glabra) are able to colonize the beds, but their numbers decreased when the distance of migration was greater. O. glabra migrated more quickly and reached more watercress beds than G. truncatula. However, this did not influence the natural infections of snails, which were more frequent in the F1 of G. truncatula. The variability observed in the colonization of beds by snails might explain the regular or irregular contamination of wild watercress by metacercariae of F. hepatica. One of the factors which may explain this variability is the occurrence of showers in spring, so that a few snails are able to reach watercress beds after their upstream migration.