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1st Student's Major

Biological Sciences

1st Student's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Students' Professional Biography

I am originally from Lagos, Nigeria in West-Africa and now a Nigerian-American, St. Paul, Minnesota is where I call Home. I am currently an undergraduate student at Minnesota State University, Mankato double majoring in Biomedical Sciences with concentration in Pre- Medicine and Gender & Women’s Studies. I anticipate graduating in May 2015 with a BS in Biomedical Sciences and a BS in Gender & Women’s Studies. I used this research as a means of increasing my knowledge and understanding in Biological Sciences. I have presented this research at the 2013 Minnesota Conferences of Undergraduate Scholarly and Creative Activity and the 2013 Undergraduate Research Symposium. I anticipate presenting this research at the 21st Annual California McNair Scholars Symposium hosted by University of California at Berkeley. I plan to begin medical school in 2015 working towards an MD/MPH dual degree.

Mentor's Name

Robert Sorensen

Mentor's Email Address

robert.sorensen@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

Biological Sciences

Mentor's College

Science, Engineering and Technology

Abstract

This study investigated the abundance and diversity of parasites residing in the digestive tracts of blue winged teal and ring-necked ducks collected at Lake Winnibigoshish, MN. The trematode parasites we focused on in this study were removed from the anterior-most, 15cm segment of the small intestine of 10 individuals of each bird species. The parasites were initially stored in 10% formalin and were subsequently stained with Schneider’s aceto carmine, then mounted on microscope slides for diagnostic purposes. A total of 1605 trematodes were recovered from the birds. We found that blue wing teal and ring-necked ducks tended to contain different species of parasites. Six of the 8 trematode “Types” we collected were identified to the species-level. Based on the identification of these parasites, we were able to determine that all of them are transmitted to their vertebrate hosts as metacercariae. This finding is consistent with our hypothesis that these birds are encountering different parasites based on differences in their feeding behaviors and diet preference.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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