THE EFFECT OF SPIRULINA ON THE EXPERIMENTAL BREEDING OF LYMNAEA COLUMELLA (SAY, 1817) (GASTROPODA: LYMNAEIDAE).

PREPELITCHI LUCILA; PUJADAS JULIETA; FERRI DARIO; WISNIVESKY MARÍA CRISTINA

Congreso; Mollusca 2014 The meeting of the americas; 2014

Snails of the family Lymnaeidae are the intermediate hosts of Fasciola hepatica, the causative agent of fasciolosis. A thorough knowledge of snail biology is essential for controlling this disease. An efficient culture technique is therefore necessary to study snail biological parameters. Commercial spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) has been recently employed as an animal feed supplement in some freshwater and marine species, but has never been tested on lymnaeid snails. We evaluate the effect of spirulina on fitness parameters of Lymnaea columella the main intermediate host of F. hepatica in Northeastern Argentina. A total of 20676 newly-laid F2 eggs were used; half of them were fed with lettuce (treatment L) and the other half with lettuce plus spirulina (treatment L+S). Each treatment was replicated 6 times and each replicate contained 1723 eggs in recipients filled with aerated and dechlorinated filter water, under a 12:12 light:dark photoperiod and at 22.5°C. Food was added as per the treatment protocol. Hatching rate, number of living snails and their shell length were measured at different time intervals until all snails had died. In comparison with L. columella snails fed only with lettuce, we found that L. columella fed with lettuce plus spirulina showed higher survival rates; grew faster and showed higher growth increments; attained sexual maturity earlier in time (L+S:60 days vs. L:120 days) and at a smaller size (L+S:4.8mm vs. L:8.2mm); had a longer reproductive period (L+S:150 days vs. L:90 days); produced a higher number of eggs/snail (L+S:29.6 vs. L:13.3) and showed a higher offspring hatching rate (L+S:70% vs. L:40%). The supplementation of L. columella diet with spirulina enhances it fitness and provides large number of reproducing adults and a continuous production of offspring, which are essential for developing future experimental studies in order to improve our knowledge on L. columella biology.