Mollusks and Parasites Studies

Researchers studying mollusks and parasites investigate how snails and slugs serve as intermediate hosts for nematodes such as *Angiostrongylus cantonensis*, a roundworm transmitted to humans and other mammals through contact with infected gastropods and capable of causing eosinophilic meningitis, a serious inflammation of the brain's lining. Much of the current concern centers on invasive snail species — particularly the giant African land snail — which spread into new regions and introduce or amplify parasite transmission in ecosystems where hosts and pathogens have no shared evolutionary history. Scientists are actively working to map which native and introduced mollusk species carry viable parasites, how invasion dynamics alter transmission risk, and what the downstream effects of these species shifts are on local biodiversity. A pressing open question is how climate change and global trade will continue to reshape the geographic overlap between invasive snails, susceptible wildlife, and human populations.

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111,639

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290,605

Keywords

SnailsParasitismAngiostrongylusMollusksInvasive SpeciesEosinophilic Meningitis