TY  - JOUR
A1  - Becker, Jeremias M.
A1  - Ganatra, Akbar A.
A1  - Kandie, Faith Jebiwot
A1  - Mühlbauer, Lina
A1  - Ahlheim, Jörg
A1  - Brack, Werner
A1  - Torto, Baldwyn
A1  - Agola, Eric L.
A1  - McOdimba, Francis
A1  - Hollert, Henner
A1  - Fillinger, Ulrike
A1  - Liess, Matthias
T1  - Pesticide pollution in freshwater paves the way for schistosomiasis transmission
T2  - Scientific Reports
N2  - Schistosomiasis is a severe neglected tropical disease caused by trematodes and transmitted by freshwater snails. Snails are known to be highly tolerant to agricultural pesticides. However, little attention has been paid to the ecological consequences of pesticide pollution in areas endemic for schistosomiasis, where people live in close contact with non-sanitized freshwaters. In complementary laboratory and field studies on Kenyan inland areas along Lake Victoria, we show that pesticide pollution is a major driver in increasing the occurrence of host snails and thus the risk of schistosomiasis transmission. In the laboratory, snails showed higher insecticide tolerance to commonly found pesticides than associated invertebrates, in particular to the neonicotinoid Imidacloprid and the organophosphate Diazinon. In the field, we demonstrated at 48 sites that snails were present exclusively in habitats characterized by pesticide pollution and eutrophication. Our analysis revealed that insensitive snails dominated over their less tolerant competitors. The study shows for the first time that in the field, pesticide concentrations considered “safe” in environmental risk assessment have indirect effects on human health. Thus we conclude there is a need for rethinking the environmental risk of low pesticide concentrations and of integrating agricultural mitigation measures in the control of schistosomiasis.
KW  - Agroecology
KW  - Epidemiology
KW  - Freshwater ecology
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57172
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-571723
SN  - 2045-2322
N1  - An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 April 2020
VL  - 10
IS  - Article number: 3650
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
CY  - [London]
ER  -