Space Satellites Over China to Battle Dangerous Snails
Researchers plan to use satellites to predict the movements of an unusual culprit in China. Their target: a dangerous underwater snail.
Underwater snails don’t sound very menacing. But some snails carry a kind of flatworm parasite called schistosoma. The parasite causes schistosomiasis, the second most widespread tropical disease after malaria. In China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, there are billions of these snails, each one no bigger than the tip of your pinky finger.
“There are huge signs there that tell people not to go into the lake. People know about the dangers of infection, but they have to touch the water to some extent. It’s part of their lifestyle,” said Motomu Ibaraki, the US-based leader of the research project.
With the help of satellites, scientists will be able to track which areas have water conditions favorable to the snails. By keeping tabs on the probable whereabouts of the disease-carrying snails, health officials can ramp up the battle against schistosomiasis, sometimes also called “snail fever”.
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Schistosomiasis is a nasty parasitic disease afflicting 200 million people worldwide. The worm that causes the disease uses underwater snails as a sort of mobile, living incubator until it’s mature enough to float through the water on its own. Once it finds a new host, often children swimming or playing in the water, the worm needs only seconds to penetrate the skin, eventually causing all manner of unpleasant ailments. To spare you your last meal we won’t list these ailments here, but you can read up on them at the above link.
“Really, the only prevention is to not touch the water,” said Ibaraki. “What we hope we can do is point to the most dangerous areas for schistosomiasis transmission based on predictions we can calculate about the snail habitat.”
Satellite monitoring will begin over China’s waters once the Three Gorges Dam is fully operational. That’s because the dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric energy project, is likely to change water conditions where the snails live.
Source: The Ohio State University
Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
maybe they didnt pollute the lake enough?