FIRST REPORT OF LYMNAEA NEOTROPICA IN NORTHEASTERN ARGENTINA: MORPHOLOGICAL AND MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION

JULIETA PUJADAS; CRISTINA WISNIVESKY; CESAR PRUZZO; RODRIGO SANABRIA; LUCILA PREPELITCHI; MARISA FARBER

Congreso; Mollusca 2014 The meeting of the americas; 2014

Lymnaea neotropica is a lymneid snail originally described from Lima, Peru. Up to date, in Argentina, it was found in southern (Mendoza province) and central region (Buenos Aires and Santa Fe provinces). In this study we report the first finding of L. neotropica in Entre Rios province, northeastern Argentina. Snail samplings were carried out from April to October 2013 in 3 livestock farms. Snails were collected during 30 minutes and transported alive to the laboratory. Once there, they were measured and 20% of the adults (> 4mm) were relaxed in menthol and killed by immersion in hot water (70ºC). Shells were removed, foots were conserved in ethanol 70% for molecular analyses and soft tissues were preserved in Railliet-Henry fluid for morphological analyses. Shell length (SL) and width (SW), penis sheath length (ps), preputium length (pp) and prostate length and width were measured for taxonomic diagnosis. The pp/ps ratio and the SL/SW proportion were calculated. DNA extraction was performed using a commercial kit and the ITS1 rDNA segment was amplified using previously published primers (Lym 1657 and ITS1-Rixo). Amplicons were purified and sequenced. A total of 162 snails were collected. Morphometric features were as follows: SL=4,0mm-8,2mm (`X: 6,1mm ±1,1); SW=2,2mm- 4,7mm (`X: 3,5mm ±0,5); SL/SW=1,3-2,1 (`X: 1,8 ±0,1), pp/ps=0,9-1,7 (`X:1,2 ±0,2), prostate length =0,4mm-1,0mm (`X: 0,6mm ±0,2) and prostate width=0,2mm-0,7mm (`X:0,3mm ±0,1). These characteristics are in coincidence with the description of L. neotropica. The ITS1 sequence (same for all snails) had 669pb and exhibited 100% nucleotide identity with the sequences of L. neotropica from Lima, Peru (ITS1:AM412228) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (ITS1:JF960165). Future malacological surveys are needed to evaluate the current distribution of L. neotropica in Northeastern Argentina and the implications for the transmission of Fasciola hepatica, as this species act as intermediate host of this human and animal parasitosis.