Indirect effects of herbicide on trematode proliferation in the freshwater snail host Potamopyrgus antipodarum

TL;DRAbstract

Freshwater ecosystems are often exposed to intense agricultural pollution, which can impact species interactions such as those between parasites and their hosts. I studied the effect of glyphosate (the active ingredient of a widely-used agricultural herbicide, Roundup®) on the proliferation and transmission of trematode parasites in the New Zealand mud snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum. This ubiquitous and highly abundant snail serves as the first intermediate host to a wide diversity of trematodes. Trematode larval stages multiply within the snail to form free-living infective stages known as cercariae which then go on to infect native invertebrates, fish and birds. Earlier evidence suggested that herbicides from agricultural run-off might weaken the immune system of the snail and promote the within-snail multiplication of the trematode Telogaster opisthorchis. I tested the effect of long-term exposure to different levels of glyphosate on snail behaviour, cercarial production by three t

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