Investigation on infection status of the animal host of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in Shenzhen City

Objective To investigate the natural infection status of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in freshwater snails and rodents in Shenzhen City.Methods Freshwater snails and rodents were stratified randomly sampled.Snails were man-made digested and detected for Angiostrongylus cantonensis Ⅲ-stage worm of Angiostrongylus cantonensis.The infection in rodents were pathogenic detected by dissecting heart-lung and serum IgG detected by ELISA.Results 358 snails and 331 rodents were collected from four administrative areas and 76 snails and 50 rodents were found Angiostrongylus cantonensis infected.Angiostrongylus cantonensis positive were found in Pomacca canaliculata,Achatina fulica and Rattus norvegicus.The infection rate in Pomacca canaliculata and Achatina fulica was 39.79% with no significant difference between them(χ2=0.07,P=0.788).But the infection rate in big snails was obviously higher than in small snails(χ2=10.06,P=0.002).The ELISA IgG determination method had the reliable value as pathogenic methods.The positive rate in immature Rattus norvegicus was much lower than that in adult rats(P0.001).The infection rate of female rates(22.22%) was higher than that of males(9.94%)(χ2=9.29,P=0.002).Conclusions Major freshwater snail hosts of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in Shenzhen City are Pomacca canaliculata and Achatina fulica while rodent host is Rattus norvegicus.High-infected hosts are the main infection sources of Angiostrongylus cantonensis in this area.