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Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Cercarial Transformation and in vitro Cultivation of Schistosoma mansoni Schistosomules
Published on: August 16, 2011
Schistosoma transmission: scaling-up competence from hosts to ecosystems
Philippe Douchet1, Benjamin Gourbal1, Eric S Loker2
1IHPE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IFREMER, Univ Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France.
Abstract:
In a One-Health context, it is urgent to establish the links between environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and the circulation of pathogens. Here we review and literally draw a general vision of aquatic environmental factors that interface with Schistosoma species, agents of schistosomiasis, and ultimately modulate their transmission at the ecosystem scale. From this synthesis, we introduce the concept of ecosystem competence defined as 'the propensity of an ecosystem to amplify or mitigate an incoming quantity of a given pathogen that can be ultimately transmitted to their definitive hosts'. Ecosystem competence integrates all mechanisms at the ecosystem scale underlying the transmission risk of a given pathogen and offers a promising measure for operationalizing the One-Health concept.
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