Bangs lake swimmers itch8/3/2023 ![]() ![]() By application of the techniques of molecular systematics to these specimens, it has been possible for the first time to develop a more coherent overview of the number of species potentially responsible for causing swimmers’ itch and to provide a growing database for where these species occur and what their normal snail and avian hosts are. Over the past decade, Division of Parasitology Collections Manager Sara Brant has been working with Curator Sam Loker to develop an extensive collection of avian schistosomes from all over the world. ![]() Repeated exposures to avian schistosome cercariae result in even more intense and itchy responses. Some unlucky swimmers may end up with hundreds of these welts after a single swim. Because humans are an inappropriate host, the cercariae die in the skin, inciting formation of an itchy, weeping red welt at the site of penetration. Swimmers’ itch occurs when the cercariae of schistosomes that normally develop in aquatic birds penetrate the skin of a human swimmer instead. and is also reported widely throughout Europe. Swimmers’ itch is especially prevalent in the upper Midwestern states of the U.S. Swimmers' itch, also known as cercarial dermatitis, is a summer affliction that many of us have suffered following a swim in a freshwater pond or lake, or even occasionally after a dip at the seashore. ![]()
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