Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the rat lungworm, is an emerging zoonotic pathogen that cycles between definitive rat and intermediate gastropod hosts. Zoonotic infection occurs when humans intentionally or accidentally consume infectious larvae in a gastropod host, and may manifest as neuroangiostrongyliasis, characterized by eosinophilic meningitis, severe neurological impairment, and even death. Thus, the risk of A. cantonensis zoonoses may be related to the distribution of A. cantonensis larvae across gastropod hosts. We screened 16 gastropod species from 14 communities on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, USA, to characterize the distribution of A. cantonensis among species and across host size. Prevalence (proportion of the population infected) and infection intensity (density of worms in host tissue) varied among gastropod species. Prevalence also varied with gastropod host size, but this relationship differed among host species. Most host species showed a positive increase in the probability of infection with host size, suggesting that within species relatively larger hosts had higher prevalence. The density of worms in an infected snail was unrelated to host size. These results suggest that variation in A. cantonensis infection is associated with demographic structure and composition of gastropod communities, which could underlie heterogeneity in the risk of human angiostrongyliasis across landscapes.

中文翻译：

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种类身份和大小与腹足类动物的大鼠肺部感染有关。

大鼠肺蠕虫广州血管圆线虫是一种新兴的人畜共患病原体，在确定的大鼠和中间腹足动物宿主之间循环。当人有意或无意地食用腹足动物宿主中的感染性幼虫时，就发生人畜共患感染，并可能表现为神经血管性纤毛虫病，特征是嗜酸性粒细胞性脑膜炎，严重的神经系统损害甚至死亡。因此，广州曲霉人畜共患病的风险可能与腹足纲宿主之间的广州曲霉幼虫的分布有关。我们从美国夏威夷瓦胡岛的14个社区中筛选了16种腹足纲动物物种，以表征广东曲霉的分布物种之间和寄主大小之间。腹足纲动物的患病率（感染人口的比例）和感染强度（宿主组织中蠕虫的密度）各不相同。患病率也随着腹足纲寄主的大小而变化，但是这种关系在寄主物种之间有所不同。大多数寄主物种的感染可能性随寄主大小的增加而正向增加，这表明物种内相对较大的寄主具有较高的患病率。感染蜗牛中蠕虫的密度与寄主的大小无关。这些结果表明，广州曲霉感染的变异与腹足动物群落的人口结构和组成有关，这可能是跨景观人类血管新生病风险的异质性的基础。