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Reintroducing native African catfish into Lake Victoria reduced snail hosts and lowered schistosomiasis infection intensity in primary-school-aged children

09.05.25 | PLOS

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Reintroducing native African catfish into Lake Victoria reduced snail hosts and lowered schistosomiasis infection intensity in primary-school-aged children
Map showing study region (southern shores of Lake Victoria, Tanzania). Credit: Proud R, et al., 2025, PLOS Biology, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases : https://plos.io/4mMI0r3

Article title: Stocking African catfish in Lake Victoria provides effective biocontrol of snail vectors of Schistosoma mansoni

Author countries : United Kingdom, Uganda, Tanzania, Australia, United States

Funding: This research was funded by a Royal Society grant (CHL\R1\180111 ; www.royalsociety.org ) awarded to ASB, SK and RK, a NERC Belmont Forum grant (NE/T013591/1; www.ukri.org ) awarded to ASB and GDL and a MRC Harmonised Impact Acceleration Grant ( www.ukri.org ) awarded to ASB, FA, SK, and RK. GADL and AJC were partially supported by the USA National Science Foundation (# ICER-2024383 through the Belmont Collaborative Forum on Climate, Environment and Health), and by USA-NSF DEB #2011179 under the program Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

10.1371/journal.pntd.0013490

Experimental study

People

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Additional Media

Reintroducing native African catfish into Lake Victoria reduced snail hosts and lowered schistosomiasis infection intensity in primary-school-aged children
Professor Andrew S. Brierley records field notes during the stocking of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) as part of a schistosomiasis biocontrol project on the shores of Lake Victoria, Tanzania. Credit: Dr. Andrew Whiston, Founder & CEO, Rastech Ltd. (CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Keywords

Ecology Lake Ecosystems Native Species Schistosomiasis

Article Information

Journal
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
DOI
10.1371/journal.pntd.0013490
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
COI Statement
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Contact Information

Claire Turner
PLOS
cjpress@plos.org

How to Cite This Article

APA:
PLOS. (2025, September 5). Reintroducing native African catfish into Lake Victoria reduced snail hosts and lowered schistosomiasis infection intensity in primary-school-aged children. Brightsurf News. https://www.brightsurf.com/news/LMJ7EKEL/reintroducing-native-african-catfish-into-lake-victoria-reduced-snail-hosts-and-lowered-schistosomiasis-infection-intensity-in-primary-school-aged-children.html
MLA:
"Reintroducing native African catfish into Lake Victoria reduced snail hosts and lowered schistosomiasis infection intensity in primary-school-aged children." Brightsurf News, Sep. 5 2025, https://www.brightsurf.com/news/LMJ7EKEL/reintroducing-native-african-catfish-into-lake-victoria-reduced-snail-hosts-and-lowered-schistosomiasis-infection-intensity-in-primary-school-aged-children.html.