Persistent establishment of a tropical disease in Europe: the preadaptation of schistosomes to overwinter

International audience; Background: Global changes promote the spread of infectious diseases worldwide. In this context, tropical uro-genital schistosomiasis is now permanently established in Corsica since its first emergence in 2013. The local persistence of the tropical pathogens (schistosomes) responsible for urogenital schistosomiasis at such latitudes might be explained by (i) the presence of its intermediate host, the snail Bulinus truncatus, (ii) the recurrent local reseeding of schistosomes by their vertebrate hosts (either human or animal) every summer, and/or (iii) the maintenance and survival of schistosomes within their snail hosts over winter.Methods: In this study we conducted…