Abstract:
Freshwater crabs are distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of
the world that are consumed for the purposes of medical and tonic properties,
including the treatment of stomach ailments and physical injuries. Sartoriana
spinigera is an important edible freshwater crab species which play an important role
as intermediate host of Microphallus indicus. It serves as biological vector for
transmission of their infective stages to the final host namely herring gulls, shorebirds,
ducks and rodents. We targeted to investigate the prevalence of lung fluke in
Bangladesh because Paragonimus westermani, the lung fluke has been reported from
Northeast India including Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal. During survey,
the metacercariae of food borne trematodes were investigated from a total of 261
crabs collected from different geographies of Bangladesh. We could not recover any
metacercaria of Paragonimus spp. from the examined crab. The metacercariae of M.
indicus were recovered from the crabs screened in this study. The overall prevalence
of M. indicus metacercariae was 26% with intensity of 1-63 per crab. The highest
(83.33%) prevalence was recorded from Naogaon district, northern part of
Bangladesh followed by Sirajgonj (57.5%), Rajshahi (40%), Brahmanbaria (16%),
Narsingdi (15%), Faridpur (10%), and Sunamgonj (7%). None of the crabs collected
from Rangpur, Thakurgoan, Jashore, Meherpur, Magura, Barguna, Sylhet,
Kishorgonj, Cox’sBazar and Bandarban was found to be infected with any
microphallid metacearia. Whereas, the highest number of infected crabs were found
the in rivers (56%), followed by haor, canal and ditches (5%) and ponds (0%). To the
best our knowledge, M. indicus is going to be reported for the first time from
Bangladesh. Therefore, proper attention should be paid during consumption of crabs.
Description:
A Thesis
Submitted to the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE (M.S.) IN PARASITOLOGY
