Human abdominal angiostrongylosis (AAH) is a parasitic disease caused by Angiostrongylus costaricensis .
The cycle of this parasite involves different hosts essential for its complete maturation. The adult worms are housed in the digestive tract of the rat, which is their definitive host. The rodent releases larvae (L1) in its faeces which will have to transit in a gastropod mollusc to moult twice and reach the stage (L3) where they become infective. Human contamination occurs by accidental ingestion of the nematode in its larval form. Human infection, often mimicking appendicitis, is sometimes severe and can lead to life-threatening complications.
This disease is a public health problem in Costa Rica, where it affects 12/100,000 people, with approximately 500 new cases each year [43].
Cases of abdominal angiostrongylosis were revealed in Martinique between 2000 and 2017.
In the French West Indies the number of human cases is low. This number is certainly underestimated because of the lack of specificity of the diagnosis, essentially anatomopathological, and the lack of awareness of the medical profession.
Although A. costaricensis was found in Guadeloupe in naturally infected rats in 1993, currently no molecular data concerning this parasite is available in the Caribbean.
This project consists in providing knowledge on A. costaricensis in Guadeloupe and to propose a specific molecular diagnosis.
We therefore propose to sequence the genome of adult A. costaricensis worms extracted from intestines of wild rats captured in Guadeloupe in 2021 and 2022.
