Cepaea parasites?? :(

[shaydeesnail]

I'm having a problem with my tank of Cepaea at the minute- Nearly all of them are losing weight and a few of them have died!
The ones that have lost weight will not come out of their shells so I can't examine them well.
I looked at one that was (seemingly) healthy and saw something a little scary!
I could see what looked like a worm inside the snail. I've drawn a line where the "worm" was on the snail as I just can't get a decent photo. It goes up into the part of the snails body that is in the shell.



It appears to be moving, which is quite worrying. Can anyone identify if this is a parasite (as opposed to just part of the snail) if so, what parasite and is it possible for it to infect humans??


-After a little more research, the only possible parasite that I can come of with is Angiostrongylus vasorum. If anyone can tell me how likely that is or give me some more information I would be grateful-

[shaydeesnail]

I forgot to mention that these are wild caught in England.

[graemepryce]

I'm not sure I have ever seen that but I could be looking in the wrong place! The only thing I can suggest is what I do with Cepaea to look for internal eggs or abnormalities when deciding which ones to breed from. Place them on a sheet of glass or clear plastic when they are wet and active and shine a bright light or torch from underneath. they are surprisingly transparent and you can see most of their body structure inside, particularly with light coloured ones. If they all look the same I'd guess it's just a feature you haven't spotted before and if the ones you think are 'infected' look significantly different then seperate them or let them go outside to take their chances. Because I'm breeding to try and get the biggest, most colourful, perfect shells possible I tend to let any that show any signs of problems at all back out into the bushes at the end of my garden.

Hope you find a solution.

[pinkunicorn]

Interesting. Wikipedia suggests C.nemoralis has been experimentally afflicted, which usually means it has not been observed in wild snails before. But obviously is a possibility.

I'd suggest asking a local malacological organisation. They keep track of these things, and this may be a relevant find to register.