Authors

Discussion

Echinostome trematodes of the genus Echinochasmus are, as adults, intestinal parasites of a range of piscivorous birds in the wild in North, South and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Adult worms are also known to infect mammals, including humans. In humans they are known to cause the zoonotic and neglected tropical disease echinostomiasis with individuals becoming infected by the ingestion of the metacercariae usually found in fish second intermediate hosts.

Examination of four adult echinostome specimens, preserved as stained whole mounts, from the collections of Harvard University MCZ confirmed their identity as being of the genus Echinochasmus with reference to Kostadinova (2005). The specimens had originally been collected by John H. Sandground of MCZ in 1934 from the small intestine of Squacco Heron (Ardeola ralloides) obtained at Pania-Mutombo, a location on the Sankuru River, Kasai, in present day Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo-Kinshasa).The worms are characterized by having twenty two collar spines, and it may be that they are of a species closely related to the only other twenty two collar spined species of the genus so far recorded from Africa, Echinochasmus mordax which was found in the intestine of the Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus)  by Looss (1899) in Egypt.

With the exception of records of species of Echinochasmus from Egypt, no verified records of the genus from elsewhere in Africa have been found to exist. It is therefore suggested that the specimens examined in the present study provide evidence for the first substantiated record of the genus Echinochasmus from sub-Saharan Africa, and that this study demonstrates the value of specimens from well curated museum collections in providing novel insights into parasite species diversity and geographical distribution.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges Adam J. Baldinger Curator of Invertebrates at Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology for arranging access to the Echinochasmus specimens.

References

Kostadinova, A. (2005) Family Echinostomatidae Looss, 1899. In, Keys to the Trematoda Volume 2, Edited by A. Jones, R.A. Bray and D.I. Published : CABI Publishing and The Natural History Museum, London. pp. 9-64.

 Looss, A. (1899) Weitere Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Trematoden-Fauna Aegyptens, zugleich Versuch einer natürlichen Glidederung des Genus Distomum Retzius. Zoologische Jahrbücher 12, pp. 521-784. Published: G. Fischer, Jena, Germany. [In German]