AQUATIC SNAILS OF THE JONGLEI REGION, SOUTHERN SUDAN, AND TRANSMISSION OF TREMATODE PARASITES

An account is given of aquatic gastropod mollusks obtained in a survey made to assess future ecological effects of the Jonglei Canal, now under construction in the Sudd region of southern Sudan. A total of about 23 species of aquatic snail lives in this region, of which a number are intermediate hosts of trematode parasites infecting man, livestock and wild herbivores, causing the diseases schistosomiasis, fascioliasis and amphistomiasis. Public health and veterinary authorities should be alert to the possibility that the Jonglei Canal will increase snail populations and raise the prevalence of parasitic diseases.