[ad_1]
The crop pest has spread across the continents to become one of the worst 100 invasive species declared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
The crop pest has spread across the continents to become one of the worst 100 invasive species declared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
A team of researchers studying the Giant African Snail across the continents has stumbled upon a unique genetic strain of the invasive creature in Kerala and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The new snail strain, called haplotype-H, was found at two localities in Kerala and at one place in the UAE.
Keerthy Vijayan, who headed a Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) study on Giant African Snail in collaboration with researchers from Nottingham University Natural History Museum, London, and the Environmental Agency, UAE, said the finding of the new genetic strain was not a good sign from the point of view of eradicating this crop pest.
The haplotype-H strain had only been reported in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Mayotte. Dr. Vijayan, in her research paper published in the ‘Biological Journal of the Linnean Society’, a reputed journal of the Oxford University Press, indicated that the identification of the second strain would have serious global implications.
“This shows that the invasion of the Giant African Snail has taken place multiple times. It tells us that controlling or eradicating this crop pest is really difficult,” Dr. Vijayan told The Hindu.
Native to East Africa, the Giant African Snail (Lissachatina fulica) has spread across the continents to become one of the worst 100 invasive species declared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Dr. Vijayan and team carried out the study at the KFRI with a Back-to-Lab fellowship for women awarded by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) between 2016 and 2020. “The study used the 16s rRNA gene sequences from Asia and compared them with the already available global sequences,” she said.
The study noticed a heavy wood trade among the snail-infested and native range countries. “This heavy trade allows invasive pathways to be kept open, and Giant African Snails are introduced back and forth between the countries,” said Dr. Vijayan.
The Giant African Snail was introduced in India in 1847. It reached Madras in 1900s. It was reported first in Kerala at Elapully in Palakkad district in 1950s. The second wave of infestation was reported in 1970s, and the third in 2005.
In 2005, the snail was recorded only in Palakkad, Erakulam and Pathanamthitta districts. But by 2022, the snail spread in all the 14 districts. “We could detect the infestation in more than 270 localities in Kerala,” said Dr. Vijayan.
In addition to being a tropical crop pest, the snail is a vector of at least two human disease agents. It acts as an intermediate host of the rat lungworm Angiostrongylus cantonensis that causes eosinophilic meningitis in humans. The disease is deadly when untreated, especially in children. Several cases have been reported in certain areas in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, which are thoroughly infested with this snail. It also contains a gram-negative bacterium, which causes septicemia and peritonitis.
[ad_2]
Source link
