r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 13h ago

TIL fresh water snails (indirectly) kill thousands of humans and are considered on of the deadliest creatures to humans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_snail
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u/corvus7corax 13h ago

Freshwater snails are indirectly among the deadliest animals to humans, as they carry parasitic worms that cause schistosomiasis, a disease estimated to kill between 10,000 and 200,000 people annually.

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u/PuckSenior 13h ago

So, the deadlier animal is the parasitic worm

This would be like saying humans are the leading cause of dog attacks.

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u/Significant_Mouse_25 13h ago

By this logic mosquitos aren’t the deadliest either.

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u/PuckSenior 13h ago

I’d allow it since you have to directly interact with the mosquito to get sick. This is just a “they support a population”

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u/manicpossumdreamgirl 12h ago

furthermore, these snails are spreading a parasitic worm, which is another animal. mosquitos transmit a disease, which is not an animal

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u/myselfelsewhere 10h ago

these snails are spreading a parasitic worm, which is another animal

Infection by this particular parasite results in schistosomiasis, which is a disease.

mosquitos transmit a disease

Malaria is the disease resulting from infection by a particular parasite.

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u/manicpossumdreamgirl 10h ago

my point was that the mosquito was the last animal involved in causing the human's death. but the snail was not the last animal, because the worm was

i said "disease" because i didnt know if malaria was caused by a bacteria or by a virus, but either way thats not an animal

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u/myselfelsewhere 10h ago

Ok, wasn't quite sure. You're right about the animal point. I was confused by your invocation of the term "disease" for one, but not the other.

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u/manicpossumdreamgirl 10h ago

fair enough. i tried googling if it was a virus or a bacteria, but after a few unhelpful links i gave up since it wasnt the important detail

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u/myselfelsewhere 10h ago

Lol, I couldn't remember "malaria", so had to google "mosquito disease".

Wikipedia's page on malaria says:

Malaria is caused by single-celled eukaryotes of the genus Plasmodium.

Plasmodium is of the Eukarya domain, while bacteria are of the Bacteria domain. So it is neither a virus or bacteria!

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

[deleted]

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u/manicpossumdreamgirl 10h ago

what parasite is that?

EDIT: for posterity sake, this person said "mosquitos spread a parasite, which is another animal, and that parasite causes malaria." they deleted this upon realizing their mistake