Schistosomiasis in Kano State, Nigeria. II. Field studies on aestivation in Bulinus rohlfsi (Clessin) and B. globosus (Morelet) and their susceptibility to local strains of Schistosoma haematobium (Bilharz).

Aestivation patterns in Bulinus rohlfsi and B. globosus were studied by digging transects across the floor of their dried habitats and by monitoring changes in snail population structure during the period when the habitats were flooded. Bulinus rohlfsi, which inhabited a small man-made lake, was found to aestivate towards the bottom of its habitat, aestivation occurring during the last six weeks before the lake dried. The data on B. globosus from a temporary pool are less complete, but they show that this species also aestivates at the bottom of its habitat and can be found buried at depths up to 3 cm. A wide size range of both species of snail were found to aestivate, but there was differential mortality of young B. rohlfsi soon after the lake re-filled, and the optimally surviving size group of B. globosus was 9 mm. The beginning of aestivation in B. rohlfsi did not correlate with any of the physical parameters measured, but it coincided with the dying off of a bloom of unicellular algae. The importance of stimuli other than desiccation in the aestivation process of bulinids is stressed. Laboratory infections with isolates of Schistosoma haematobium showed that both Bulinus species were capable of transmitting local strains of the parasite and indicated the presence of snail host-specific strains.