Authors

Discussion

This study aimed to determine the presence and identity of potential snail hosts of schistosomiasis in four provinces of north–western Angola. This is an area where infection with Schistosoma haematobium, causing urogenital schistosomiasis, is common but little is known about transmission of the disease. Angola has had a varied past regarding disease control and is revitalising efforts to combat Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Snails were sampled from 60 sites. Nine genera were identified using morphology; most important was the discovery of Bulinus globosus, B. canescens, B. angolensis, B. crystallinus and Biomphalaria salinarum in their type locations. Snails were screened for trematode infections by cercarial shedding.Furthermore, miracidia were hatched from eggs from urine samples provided by children from Icáu Wando, Bengo Province. Cercariae and miracidia were captured for molecular analysis. All snails were identified using shell morphology; subsequently a subset of all species from each site was used for molecular identification. These data showed two distinct areas where either B. globosus or B. angolensis are found. The COX1 sequence for B. globosus differs from specimens from other countries. S. haematobium cercariae were collected from B. globosus from two locations: Cabungo, Bengo and Calandula, Malanje. The molecular phylogeny generated from the