Gastropoda collection for freshwater snails in sub-Saharan Africa

<p>Schistosomiasis is an endemic parasitic disease currently infesting the sub-Sahara countries and has caused over 200 million infections worldwide. It is transmitted through water bodies and their intermediate host (IH), freshwater snails. By recording the geographical distribution and taxonomic information of the IH snails, a better understanding on the transmission pathway and proper execution on the disease prevention can be made accordingly. Thus, multiple excursions and sampling have been performed during 2012 and 2020 in several sub-Saharan African countries that are endemic for schistosomiasis by the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium) and African partner institutes. Freshwater snail samples (with possible parasite infections) fixed on ethanol are here compiled in this dataset. The taxonomic identification was done mostly to genus-level due to the high morphological plasticity that exist among certain snail species. Yet, for many sample species-level ID was confirmed by DNA barcoding including Biomphalaria pfeifferi, Bulinus globosus, Bulinus truncatus, Bulinus forskalii, Radix natalensis, Pseudosuccinea columella, Physa acuta, Gyraulus connollyi, Melanoides tuberculata and others.</p>
<p>We would like to thank all our collaborators (according to countries’ alphabetic order) for their significant contributions to this dataset: Dr. Felicité Teukeng (Faculty of Health Sciences University of Montagnes, Cameroon), Dr. Joule Madinga (Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, DRCongo), Prof Patrick Mitachi Mulopo (Université de Kinshasa, DRCongo), Dr. Casim Umba Tolo (Pharm-Bio Technology and Traditional Medicine Centre (PHARMBIOTRAC), Mbarara University of Science &amp; Technology, Uganda), Dr. Bruno SENGHOR, (Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal), Dr. Maxwell Barson and Tamuka Nhiwatiwa (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe).</p>

<p>血吸虫病是一种在撒哈拉以南国家流行的寄生虫性疾病，全球感染人数已超过2亿。该疾病通过水体及其中间宿主（IH），淡水螺传播。通过记录淡水螺的地理分布和分类信息，可以更深入地了解传播途径，并据此采取适当的疾病预防措施。因此，比利时皇家非洲博物馆及其非洲合作伙伴机构在2012年和2020年间对多个血吸虫病流行的撒哈拉以南非洲国家进行了多次探险和采样。本数据集收录了固定在乙醇中的淡水螺样本（可能含有寄生虫感染）。由于某些蜗牛物种之间存在高度形态可塑性，分类鉴定主要进行到属级。然而，对于许多样本，通过DNA条形码技术已确认到物种级别，包括 Biomphalaria pfeifferi、Bulinus globosus、Bulinus truncatus、Bulinus forskalii、Radix natalensis、Pseudosuccinea columella、Physa acuta、Gyraulus connollyi、Melanoides tuberculata 等物种。</p><p>我们在此感谢所有合作者（按国家字母顺序排列）对该数据集的重大贡献：Felicité Teukeng 博士（喀麦隆蒙塔尼亚大学健康科学学院）、Joule Madinga 博士（刚果民主共和国国家生物医学研究院）、Patrick Mitachi Mulopo 教授（刚果民主共和国金沙萨大学）、Casim Umba Tolo 博士（乌干达姆巴拉拉科学技术大学药学和生物技术及传统医学中心（PHARMBIOTRAC））、Bruno SENGHOR 博士（塞内加尔谢赫安塔·迪奥大学）、Maxwell Barson 博士和 Tamuka Nhiwatiwa 博士（津巴布韦大学生物学系）。</p>