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Are you concerned about catching schistosomiasis from your aquarium?
I was reading wikipedia.org and schistosomiasis caught my eye. It's a potentially lethal and thoroughly unfun disease that anyone who touches infected water can catch. The parasite that causes schistosomiasis lives inside Biomphalaria, Bulinus, and Oncomelania snails, which I looked up, and are ramshorn, pond snails, and spiral pond snails (common names). This disease is rated by the CDC as the second most important parasitic disease to global health after malaria. More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis
My point is this:
1. I have those snails in my aquarium
2. Those snails can carry the parasite, which means any water infected snails live in can get people sick if they touch the water
3. I touch my aquarium water every week when I clean the tank.
Understandably concerned, I proceeded to check on the global infection rates. It looks like the majority of the people who are sick get sick in Africa. But this still worries me. It would only take one infected snail to make my aquarium hazardous to my health, even potentially lethal. Also, the worms are 10 mm long. Ew.
What is keeping us fishkeepers who don't live in Africa so safe? Why aren't there any cases of schistosomiasis outside of that continent? I mean, the snails in our aquariums originated in Africa, where the pathogen lives. Why aren't we getting sick? Does anyone have any ideas?
4 Answers
- DanielLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
Not really. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone catching schistosomiasis via a home aquarium.
First, you don't have those particular snails in your aquarium. You may have similar-looking snails that belong in the same family as those snails, but those three specific genera of snails (Biomphalaria, Bulinus, and Oncomelania) do not appear in fishkeeping. Secondly, snails in our aquariums do not come from Africa - most originated from Southeast Asia, some from North and South America, and they're many, many generations removed from their wild counterparts, and are probably improper hosts for schistosomiasis to begin with.
- OMCLv 41 decade ago
Im positive the snails sold in pet stores are not collected from these infected areas. If they were Im sure the snails would be more expensive, due to shipping costs. Most freshwater fish are either raised by local breeders or commercially on fish farms, keeping the cost down. The snails can carry schisto, but in order to do so, they would need exposure first and I can only imagine in either of those environments exposure would be non existent. The other thing is we do not live in a 3rd world country where we are consistently exposed to contaminated water. The life cycle requires the eggs to be excreted either through urine or feces into a body of water where there are snails. We go to the washroom in a toilet and not a body of water, thus eliminating that portion of the life cycle, thus no outbreaks.
- ?Lv 45 years ago
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