英国新闻听力 美国的国家寄生虫藏馆（在线收听）

You’ve probably heard of people collecting stamps or arts or even antique cars, but what about parasites? In 1892, the American government established a National Parasite Collection to learn more about diseases affecting livestock. Twenty million specimens have now been transferred to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for safekeeping. Our correspondent Janot Bryan met the new curator at a swamp in Marryland.

It’s a little chilly.

We are hoping to find some blood suckers to add to the collection using our bare legs as bait. So we just stand here and wait for the leeches to come and latch onto our legs.

Well, leeches, they are blood-feeding, will be attracted by movement. So you have to do leech dance. So there is a special technique. You can either do sort of do this a little bit where you dance your knees up and down and create some ripples, you can also do it side to side. The purpose is to create lots of ripples in the water so if there’s leeches farther away, they will be attracted to this point.

The leech dance looks a bit like the self-conscious jiggling of mid-aged man at a wedding party. Needless to say, the leeches were not impressed. Is that a leech there?

Hum, no. No, that’s not a leech. That’s plants.

Fortunately, the National Parasite Collection contains some twenty million specimens including plenty of leeches. So undaunted, we returned to dry land.

This is the US National Parasite Collection. It was founded in 1892. It contains mostly intestinal parasites, intestinal worms. It also includes some ticks, fleas and lice and also a few mites. 

The sheer scale of the collection is quite overwhelming. There is row-upon-row of jars and bottles of pickled parasites. Many are still attached to their unfortunate hosts while others are so small they can only be seen under a microscope. Some of the parasites here can also infect humans.

Many of the specimens collection are from wild life, and so looking back at the specimens and knowing which animals have hosted these parasites in the past, we can make predictions of what may be infecting humans in the future.

In fact, sixty percent of all human diseases come from animals. Stephen Higgs is the President of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

A collection like this, it’s a tremendous resource of material.

你可能听说过有人收集邮票、艺术品甚至古董车，但你听说过有人收集寄生虫吗？1892年，美国政府建立了国家寄生虫藏馆，从而了解更多影响牲畜的疾病。两千万样品已被转移到史密森尼国家自然历史博物馆妥善保管。本台记者加诺·布莱恩在马里兰州的一片湿地约见了新馆长。

有点冷啊。

我们希望用腿做诱饵，找到一些吸血蛭添加到藏馆中。所以我们就站在这儿，等着水蛭来吸附腿。

水蛭嘛，是吸血的，运动会吸引他们，所以你得跳水蛭舞。有个小窍门，你可以像这样缓缓屈膝上下移动，制造一些涟漪，也可以从一边到另一边。目的是在水里制造许多涟漪，远处有水蛭的话会被吸引到这边。

水蛭舞跳起来有点像一位中年男子在婚礼上扭扭捏捏地轻摇。不用说，水蛭们并不大感兴趣。那是一只水蛭吗？

嗯，不，不，那不是水蛭，那是植物。

好在国家寄生虫藏馆囊括了约两千万个样本，包括很多水蛭。所以，我们就如释重负地上岸了。

这就是美国国家寄生虫藏馆，始建于1892年，收藏了大部分肠寄生虫和蛔虫，也有一些扁虱、跳蚤、虱子和几个螨虫。

藏馆庞大的规模绝对令人震撼。一排排的瓶瓶罐罐里泡着寄生虫。许多虫子还依附在它们不幸的宿主上，其他寄生虫都太小了，只能用显微镜观察，有些寄生虫还会感染人类。

我们收藏的许多样本都来自野生动物，那么回看这些样本，了解哪些动物曾是这些寄生虫的宿主，我们就可以推测将来哪些虫会影响人类。

实际上，全人类百分之六十的疾病来自动物。史蒂芬·希格斯是美国热带医学和卫生协会的主席。

这样的藏馆，是一个巨大的材料资源。