Fasciola hepatica: Infection Status of Freshwater Snails Collected from Gangwon-do (Province), Korea

The sheep liver fluke, Fasciola hepatica, is primarily a zoonotic parasite that causes liver infection in cattle and sheep, and occasionally in humans. Freshwater snails are the first intermediate host, and humans are infected mainly by ingesting raw aquatic plants contaminated with the metacercariae F. hepatica infection in snails has traditionally been evaluated by microscopy; however, this method is time-consuming and laborious In addition, microscopic investigation of snails for F. hepatica larvae has low diagnostic sensitivity Thus, various molecular approaches have been used to identify Fasciola sp. infectons