• Edo-Taiwo Omoyemwen
  Laboratory of Public Health and Veterinary Parasitology, Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
  




• Enabulele Egie Elisha
  Laboratory of Public Health and Veterinary Parasitology, Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.
  

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease whose transmissionrndynamics are partly driven by the presence of freshwater snailsrninfected with Schistosoma parasites. A scheduled malacologicalrnsurvey in a urogenital schistosomiasis endemic community (Siluko) inrnEdo State, Nigeria, was cancelled due to heightened security concernsrnthat restricted access to the field site. To address this limitation, anrnalternative approach, Aquatic Vegetation Harvest and Screeningrn(AVHS), was developed. Aquatic vegetation were collected from thernbanks of Siluko River and transported to the laboratory with the help ofrnresidents. The harvested vegetation was subsequently screened forrnfreshwater snails using the AVHS protocol. A total of 49 snailsrnrepresenting five genera and six species were recovered. Six speciesrn[Biomphalaria pfeifferi (07), Bulinus forskalii (08), Bulinus truncatusrn(21), Melanoides tuberculata (06), Radix natalensis (01), andrnSegmentorbis angustus (02)] and two species [B. pfeifferi (01) and R.rnnatalensis (03)] were identified from the first and second waybill,rnrespectively. Notably, B. pfeifferi and S. angustus represent newrnrecords for Siluko. None of the collected snails shed schistosomerncercariae. However, the presence of Biomphalaria pfeifferi, thernintermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni, suggests a potential risk ofrnintestinal schistosomiasis transmission. Species richness detectedrnthrough AVHS was comparable to previous surveys, supporting itsrnvalue for presence–absence monitoring. Although AVHS mayrnunderestimate abundance and favor vegetation-associated species, itrnoffers a practical, community-based approach for identifying snailrnhosts where conventional sampling is challenging. Furtherrnstandardization and validation are needed.