Can anyone identify what kind of Schistosome species this might be? Morphological features of cercariae and adults resemble Trichobilharzia, though I am fairly new to the field of parasitology and would appreciate more seasoned individuals weighing in. I've provided unstained microscope images of specimens at various levels of magnification as attachments. Though to be honest, I'm not always confident in my ability to tell the difference between specimens and bubbles/dust/fibers that could be contaminating my slides. The last three pictures were taken on a higher powered microscope with the assistance of more senior faculty.
If interested, I would be happy to share more images upon request.
Hello, if you have better photos of the larvae, I can try to help you in this regard
Hello Kirsten,
some objects in your images look like artifacts (bubbles, fibres) but some might be Trichobilharzia (or other schistosomatid) adults and eggs. If I were you, I would write to prof. Petr Horák (http://helminthology.cz/) who would help you or tell you who else you should contact. It would be good if you provide him with more details, such as the locality, the host species and tissue localization.
Tomas
Also you could contact to Dr Sara Brant, she is a specialist in this group of parasites and a very kind scientific too, it would be perfect if you preserve those specimens in ethanol for further staining or molecular analysis.
The main diagnostic features of cercaria stage are body and forked tail.From these images it look they are artifacts (bubbles and dusts)
Hi, I checked some of your images -not all, and they are fibers and artifacts. Normally schistosomes are very easy to identify, at both the juvenile and the adult stages. They are very motile too.
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