Prevalence of cercariae from Lymnaea stagnalis snails in a pond system in Southern Germany

Lymnaea stagnalis snails were collected from 174 individual ponds of an ext ensive pond system in South Germany; 43,441 snails collected during 1980-20 00 were examined for shedding cercariae. The species richness (at least 18 species of cercariae) and the high cercarial prevalence (at least 44.9%) ma y result from the high abundance and diversity of vertebrate and invertebra te hosts in the area. The mean prevalence (% +/- SEM) of most cercarial spe cies increased from May-June to August-October, e.g. in Diplostomum spathac eum from 4.1% to 18.6%, in all echinostomatids from 5.6% to 18.0%, in Pseud echinoparyphium echinatum from 3.0% to 11.2%, in Xiphidiocercariae from 2.2 % to 13.4%, and the overall prevalence shifted from 13.7% to 53.5%. There w as no change in the prevalence of the different cercarial species over the last 20 years. The agents of cercarial dermatitis showed a constant low pre valence, 0.17% in Trichobilharzia ocellata (43,441 L. stagnalis examined) a nd 0.24% in other Trichobilharzia species (4,245 Radix examined). Such low prevalences seem to be normal in areas where cercarial dermatitis occurs in humans.