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In Ghana Seasonal Population Fluctuations and Biology

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In Ghana Seasonal Population Fluctuations and Biology Bull. Org. mond. Sante 1962, 27, 161-170 Bull. Wld Hith Org. Further Observations on Bulinus (Bulinus) truncatus rohlfsi (Clessin) in Ghana Seasonal Population Fluctuations and Biology FERGUS S. McCULLOUGH' Bulinus (B.) truncatus rohlfsi is an important snail host of Schistosoma haematobium in Ghana andprobably elsewhere in West Africa. Study of this snail in natural habitats in Northern Ghana has shown that the pronounced population fluctuations can be broadly related to the alternating wet and dry seasons and to any marked changes in the aquatic vegetation. An increase in snail density and reproductive activity begins during the rainy season, reaching a peak in the dry season. The onset of the contraction phase in the snail population is often abrupt, although it may be preceded by intense oviposition; during this phase there are but a few widely scattered snails and little reproductive activity with a low level of survival, particularly ofjuvenile snails. The factors which favour the survival of young specimens are clearly critical in the evolution of the snail population. The findings are related to snail population studies carried out elsewhere in Africa, and to the application as well as limitations ofmolluscicides in bilharziasis controlprogrammes. It is now generally recognized that the most opportunity to conduct observations on the seasonal efficient single method of bilharziasis control is that population fluctuations and biology of this species; which ensures destruction of the snail hosts to a level the results are described in the present paper. which precludes effective transmission of the para- sites. This opinion is likely to be maintained until HABITATS AND CLIMATE drugs become available which can safely be used in mass prophylaxis and treatment campaigns. How- The habitats at Yendi and Tamale are both dams ever, irrespective of the discovery of better drugs, which do not dry up completely even though their measures to control the intermediate hosts will still catchment areas are quite small. The dam at Yendi be needed as an essential part of any programme of was built about 1943 and contains relatively little prevention. It is not surprising, therefore, that organic sediment; the aquatic vegetation may be studies on the ecology of the snail hosts have inten- abundant or scarce according to the season. The sified in recent years. dam at Tamale, on the other hand, is the oldest in In Ghana specific investigations on bilharziasis northern Ghana, probably more than 50 years old, and the snail hosts were initiated early in the last and contains an excessive amount of putrefying decade (McCullough, 1956a). Recently (1960), the organic debris as well as abundant, large aquatic and present status of the disease has been appraised in an semi-aquatic plants throughout the year. At Fuu unpublished report to the World Health Organiza- the snails occur in the Mawli river, which ceases to tion by McMullen & Buzo, who advocate, among flow in the dry season when the water rapidly con- other things, further work on the biology of the tracts into a series of small pools or, as at Fuu itself, molluscan hosts. In 1959, new foci, in which into an extensive basin simulating a very large dam. Bulinus (Bulinus) truncatus rohlfsi acts as the exclusive This large body of water is free of aquatic vegetation potential transmitter of S. haematobium, were dis- except at the banks, where emergent grasses and covered in northern Ghana at Yendi, Tamale and sedges intermittently occur and where trees and Fuu (McCullough, 1962). These foci offered a good bushes overhang the water. The few snails which were found occurred among decaying leaves at the I WHO Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo. banks, but not in the deeper water away from the 1154 - 161 162 F. S. MCCULLOUGH edges. It is also of interest that B. (B.) truncatus FIG. I rohlfsi was never collected in the small temporary AVERAGE MONTHLY RAINFALL AT TAMALE, GHANA, pools further up the river bed. In all three habitats FROM 1939 TO 1958 a B. (B.) forskalii and Lanistes sp. occur, while at I. UOS Tamale and Fuu, but not at Yendi, Lymnaea natal- ensis is also present. The findings at Yendi will be presented in con- S - ----120 siderable detail, while those at Tamale and Fuu will be briefly described in relation to the results recorded .6 15 8 at Yendi. _J The climate in northern Ghana is pronouncedly _J U. 4 9 seasonal; the hot dry season usually extends from Z 10 4 October to March or April, when the cooler rainy season intervenes. The average monthly rainfall 2 5 figures for the years 1939-58 at Tamale are given in Fig. 1, while the monthly rainfall at Yendi and 0 Tamale for the period of the present observations is d 0 MONTHS shown in Fig. 2. At Tamale the air temperatures may 1 and range from 60°F to 105°F (or about 16°C-41°C) a The average number of wet days per month is shown above the annual mean is about 81°F (27°C). The humidity the columns of the histogram. is, of course, lowest during the dry season, when water loss by evaporation is considerable; at this FIG. 2 season the water level in dams may drop as much as MONTHLY RAINFALL AT TAMALE AND YENDI, GHANA, 8 feet (2.4 m), and is lowest in April or May during DURING THE PERIOD OF OBSERVATION the early rainy season. PROCEDURE Although the merits of different techniques and apparatus for quantitative estimations of aquatic snail populations have recently received much attention (Olivier & Schneiderman, 1956; Hairston et al., 1958; Webbe, 1960), the method of observation used in the present investigations was designed to provide relative rather than absolute information. Indeed, it soon became apparent that the ill-judged use of one of the quantitative procedures-that de- scribed by Hairston et al. (1958)-might easily have led to misinterpretation of the seasonal population fluctuations of this species. As it was not possible to examine the habitats at short or regular intervals, they were visited at periods corresponding to a particular climatic season. Briefly, the method employed in northern Ghana was as follows. At each visit as much of the habitat as possible-or representative areas of it- was searched for snails and their egg capsules, with the aid of a metal scoop, a drag net and, if necessary, by hand. Notes were kept on the pattern of distribu- tion of the snails in the habitat, on the degree of breeding activity as assessed by the relative number of egg capsules and also of copulating specimens; on OBSERVATIONS ON BULINUS TRUNCATUS ROHLFSI IN GHANA 163 the size or age composition of the population; on and probably about 10 or more weeks old. These mortality, as indicated by the frequency of empty mature forms occurred in aggregations rather than shells; on the profusion or scarcity of the larger being widely distributed among the vegetation of the aquatic plants; and on the water level. At the con- dam. This observation supports the view, discussed clusion of the visit the status of the population was later, that the mature snails seen on this occasion defined broadly as follows: numerous, when more represented the primary generation, which must have than 70 snails were collected in a period not exceeding been initiated as early as July, in the expansion phase 20 minutes; fairly common, when 20-70 snails were of the annual population cycle, just as their pro- recovered in 20 minutes; few, when fewer than 20 genitors represented the end-point in the contraction snails were found in a collecting period of not less phase of the previous population cycle. than 20 minutes; none, when snails could not be On 16 December 1960 (early to mid dry season) found after prolonged search. the snails were fewer in number and they were widely distributed along the embankment of the dam; their OBSERVATIONS distribution was therefore in marked contrast to that Seasonal population studies on B. (B.) truncatus observed during the previous visit in September. rohlfsi at Yendi Moreover, many empty shells belonging to both In an earlier paper (McCullough, 1956b) it was mature and juvenile forms were seen and these also recorded that the population density of B. (B.) were scattered along the embankment. The presence truncatus rohlfsi occurring in habitats in south-east of a few egg capsules showed that the snails were still Ghana fluctuated markedly from season to season breeding, but their scarcity, compared with their and apparently was greatest at the beginning of the abundance in September, indicated that the intensity dry season. The results of the present observations of breeding had greatly declined. During this visit conducted in northern Ghana show a similar the water in the dam had dropped several feet below seasonal pattern; moreover, they indicate that an the level of the spillway, and the vegetation in the increase in the population density and in reproduc- dam much less dense than in September. The drop tive activity may begin during the rainy season and in the water level had caused the isolation of several reach a peak during the dry season. small pools at the perimeter of the dam. In one of Thus in Yendi dam on 7 September 1959 (end of these pools, situated among rocks in the outer slope rainy season) the snails and their egg capsules were of the spiilway, a large number of snails, both mature fairly common on the dense aquatic vegetation; the and juvenile, was seen; the crowded population in water was then rapidly overflowing the spillway. this small pool was atypical and evidently it had On 20 October 1959 (early dry season) the snails and become concentrated as the water in the habitat egg masses were numerous and were more widely gradually evaporated.
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