This is the first report on occurrence of
Biomphalaria straminea
in the district of São José de Almeida (municipality of Jaboticatubas)
State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The presence of
B. glabrata
and
B. tenagophila
had already been reported in this area. Such municipality is part of the
metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte and comprises 60% of the Tourist Complex
of Serra do Cipó. Since the 1950s throughout the 1990s, a schistosomiasis
prevalence ranging from 15 to 40% has been observed. Although no
B. straminea
specimen has been found naturally infected in the region, descendants of
these snails collected in the area, showed to be experimentally susceptible
to Schistosoma mansoni infection reaching rates from 14.6 to 28.6%. Even
not being found naturally infected, in the State of Minas Gerais, the possibility
that the species
B. straminea
may keep endemicity foci of schistosomiasis should be regarded, as in the
Northeastern region of Brazil where the high density of this planorbid and
the social-economic and sanitary conditions enable to the transmission.
