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If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. Cercarial emission of schistosomes is a determinant in the transmission to the definitive host and constitutes a good marker to identify which definitive host is responsible for transmission, mainly in introgressive hybridization situations.
Our goal was to test the hypothesis that micro-mammals play a role in Schistosoma haematobium , S. Small mammal sampling was conducted in seven semi-lacustrine villages of southern Benin.
Among the 62 animals trapped, 50 individuals were investigated for Schistosoma adults and eggs: 37 Rattus rattus , 3 Rattus norvegicus , 9 Mastomys natalensis , and 1 Crocidura olivieri. Schistosoma adults were found in four R. Two cercarial chronotypes were found from Bulinus globosus experimentally infected with miracidia extracted from naturally infected M. The cytochrome C oxidase subunit I mtDNA gene of the collected schistosomes adults, miracidia, and cercariae belonged to the S.
Eleven internal transcribed spacer rDNA profiles were found; four belonged to S. These molecular results together with the observed multi-peak chronotypes add M. We discuss the origin of the new chronotypes which have become more complex with the appearance of several peaks in a h day. We also discuss how the new populations of offspring may optimize intra-host ecological niche, host spectrum, and transmission time period. Keywords: Schistosoma haematobium x Schistosoma bovis , Cercarial chronobiology, Mastomys natalensis , Rattus rattus , Schistosome transmission.
