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

is a trematode that causes zoonosis, mainly in cattle and sheep, and occasionally in humans. Few recent studies have determined the infection status of this fluke in Korea. In August 2015, we collected 402 samples of freshwater snails at Hoenggye-ri (upper stream) and Suha-ri (lower stream) of Song-cheon (stream) in Daegwalnyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun in Gangwon-do (Province) near many large cattle or sheep farms. infection was determined using PCR on the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2). Among the 402 samples, 1TS-2 marker was detected in 6 freshwater snails; thus, the overall prevalence in freshwater snails was 1.5%. The prevalence varied between collection areas, ranging from 0.0% at Hoenggye-ri to 2.9% at Suha-ri. However, ITS-2 was not detected in the 6 -positive samples by PCR. The nucleotide sequences of the 6 ITS-2 PCR-positive samples were 99.4% identical to the ITS-2 sequences in GenBank, whereas they were 98.4% similar to ITS-2 sequences. These results indicated that the prevalence of in snail intermediate hosts was 1.5% in Gangwon-do, Korea; however the prevalence varied between collection areas. These results may help us to understand infection status in natural environments.