Catalog
1. Habitat
2. Morphological Characteristics
3. Distribution Range
4. Breeding Techniques
5. It is very agile, can swim in waves, and can also move in an inchworm style. Every spring is active, June to October for its spawning period, often hibernating in the winter near the shore in the wet mud, do not eat and do not move, strong ability to survive.
Life habits: leeches are cold-blooded annelids, can be grown and reproduced in the south and north of China, it mainly lives in freshwater reservoirs, ditches, paddy fields, lakes and swamps, with organic matter-rich ponds or unpolluted streams in the most. Growth temperature of 10-40 ℃, the northern region below 3 ℃ in the soil into hibernation hibernation period, the following year in March-April higher than 8 ℃ or so out of the sting activity. Leeches are omnivorous animals, sucking animal blood or body fluids as the main way of life, often in the water plankton, insects, mollusks as the main bait, artificial conditions to a variety of animal offal, cooked egg yolks, feed, plant residues, freshwater snails and shellfish, miscellaneous fish, earthworms, etc. as bait.
2. Morphological characteristics
The body length is slightly flat, at first glance it looks like a cylinder, the body length of about 2 to 15 centimeters, the width of about 2 millimeters to 1.5 centimeters. The dorsal surface is green with black, with 5 yellow longitudinal lines, the ventral surface is flat, gray-green, without heterochromatic spots, the overall ring pattern is remarkable, the body segments are composed of 5 rings, each ring is similar in width. Eyes 10, arranged in a shape, the mouth has 3 semicircular jaws surrounded by a Y-shaped, when sucking the animal body, with this jaws to the skin drilling, large body, body length 60-120mm, width 13-14mm. dorsal surface dark green, with 5 longitudinal lines, sucking the blood, from the pharynx through the esophagus and stored throughout the digestive tract and the blind sac. All body segments have excretory pores, opening ventrally. Male and female genital pores are 4 rings apart, each opening between rings. The anterior sucker is more readily visible and the posterior sucker is more conspicuous and adsorbent.
3. Distribution range
Produced in lakes and ponds as well as in paddy fields in most parts of China.
Mainly produced in Shandong Weishan, Dongping, Nanyang Lake and other lakes, Weishan Lake production is the largest, in addition to the supply of the province, and sales in the northeast, Hebei, Shanxi. Jiangsu Suzhou suburbs, Wu County and other places produced also exported part. In addition, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places are also produced, are self-produced.
4. Farming technology
Experience skills
1. leeches site building technology:
Choose to avoid the wind to the sun, drainage and irrigation is convenient place to build pools. Pool around the ridge height of 1.8 meters, water depth of 1 meter, the size of the area should be based on the amount of feeding. Generally, each acre of water can be stocked with 6 to 100,000 young leeches. Pool diagonal water inlet and outlet. In order to facilitate the leech's habitat and spawning, the bottom of the pool can put some irregular stones or branches, the pool should be built 20 cm above the level of the earth platform 5 to 8, each platform 1 square meters or so. The ridge should also be set up to prevent the escape ditch, made of brick, ditch width of 12 centimeters, 8 centimeters high, when it rains with a dense net fence or sprinkle some lime in the ditch, can prevent the escape.
2. casting stocking
The source of leech seedlings can be captured, purchased or self-propagated. In the beginning of the breeding, generally to natural capture-based, but also can be purchased from the relevant units. There are three kinds of leeches that are traditionally used as medicine in China: the money leech is the best for artificial breeding. The money leech is large and highly productive. The money leech is commonly known as the cow leech in the countryside. Cattle often crawl on the cattle to suck blood, and should be identified when captured for seed. Leech hermaphrodite, each leech can lay eggs to reproduce, in late March to April (Yangtze River Basin, the same below) egg cocoon, egg cocoon produced in the soil, the general production of egg cocoon 1 to 4, each cocoon of young leeches 13 to 35, most of the 20 or so, each leech can reproduce 60 to 80 at a time. Young leeches appeared in large numbers in June, growing rapidly, within a month after hatching, the average growth of more than 20 millimeters, to September and October to grow up with the adult body indistinguishable. It is appropriate to put in early spring. Early spring stocking in October can be grown, processed and sold.
3. leech artificial propagation technology
1, the construction of breeding pool: pool area of about 30 square meters, it is appropriate to build 5 meters 5 meters or 6 meters 6 meters square, pool around the pool wall set up 1 ~ 1.5 meters of the platform, the middle of the water surface, the depth of 50 cm, the platform is higher than the surface of the water 2 centimeters, the platform surface to keep wet. Do platform soil should be high humus-containing loose sandy soil, easy to leech holes, do not use yellow clay, Qi platform surface should be set up overflow, to prevent the rain flooded bang platform caused by breeding failure. Generally divided into small breeding pools and large breeding pools of two kinds:
①Small breeding pools are generally built 3 meters wide, 1 meter deep pool ditch, the length is not limited. Can also build a number of small pools **** hard, the ridge is 40 centimeters wide, each pool is set up in the outlet, the water inlet. The middle of the pool must have a 50-100 cm wide spawning platform, the platform and the water surface at a level, the platform above the pile of a layer of 20 cm thick humus soil. As a place for leeches to lay eggs and reproduce. The water level of 50-60 centimeters is appropriate.
②The construction of large-scale breeding poolsThe construction of large-scale breeding pools is generally based on the actual geographic situation and built into different specifications of the pool. If the water source is not convenient, you can also lay a layer of plastic film on the bottom of the pool. The bottom of the pool should be put into the right amount of river mud to increase the organic matter content of the water. Plant some water plants in the water, which can purify the water and increase the oxygen content of the water. It is best to bury a circle of nylon mesh screen (0.5-0.6 meters high) on the bank of the pool to block frogs, snakes and other natural enemies from entering the breeding pool. In order to prevent the summer water temperature is too high, too much light, can be cultivated in the pool on the shore of the willow and other trees to shade.
(2) the selection of seed leeches: for breeding and seed leeches, the age should be more than 2 years, weighing about 30 grams, robust, lively and active, touching with the hand that quickly shrink into a ball. Such a leech carries a lot of eggs, high hatching rate, the amount of seed leeches put according to the land area of the platform in the pool, generally put about 1.5 kg per square meter. Seed leech into the pool to maintain the water quality is fertile, there should be enough plankton and snails for its feeding.
(3) reproduction: in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the leech spawning cocoon time from the beginning of May, lasted until mid-June (with individual differences), mid-May for its peak breeding season. Spawning cocoon period should be kept quiet, avoid walking on the shore vibration, otherwise, is laying eggs cocoon leech will be frightened and escape, resulting in empty cocoon.
(4) hatching management: leech egg cocoon can be collected after the capture of another pool rearing or processing, breeding pool and as a hatchery, the egg cocoon to let it in the cave natural incubation, egg cocoon output about 11 to 15 days after the hatching of young leeches. The hatchling leeches are very much like adults, cork yellow, with 7 fine longitudinal lines of purple-gray color arranged on each side of the back of the body. As the hatchlings grow, the coloration between the longitudinal stripes changes gradually, resulting in five longitudinal stripes consisting of two types of markings that are interspersed with each other and change into the coloration of the adult. During the incubation stage, walking on the platform should be avoided as much as possible to avoid stepping on the egg cocoon. The platform surface should be kept wet, can be covered with a layer of water grass, if encountered rainy weather to dredge the overflow, the water surface can not be over the platform, keep the gap of about 3 cm. After the breeding species leech fishing out, you can put young mussels and snails for young leeches to feed, young leeches after hatching two, three days mainly rely on the yolk to maintain life, three days after the foraging. The first hatching of young leeches mainly feed on mussels, snail lion's blood and sap, in the body of a mussel, will be drilled into a number of 10 to 100 young leeches, with the growth of the larvae, they will devour mussels, snail lions, the whole soft part of the young leeches grow rapidly, half a month, the average growth of up to 15 millimeters or more, can be transferred to a large pool of feeding into adult leeches.
4. leech feeding technology
Leeches have a strong vitality, rough and easy to grow, very easy to manage. The main management is baiting and regulating water quality.
(1) baiting: leeches mainly feed on snails, earthworms and other invertebrates and mammalian blood, artificial baiting natural feed to a wide range of sources of snails, supplemented by earthworms, insect larvae, etc., artificial feed is mainly a variety of animal blood. Snails can be put in at one time, i.e., a certain number of snails (about 25 kg per acre) can be stocked in the breeding pond for natural reproduction for leeches to feed on freely. Putting snails should not be too much, so as not to compete with the leech for space. Animal blood fed once a week has a significant effect on the rapid growth of leeches. Pig, cow, sheep and other animal blood clot into the pool, every 5 meters or so a piece, leeches smell the fishy smell will soon gather together, sucked full of their own dispersal. To remove the blood clot residue in time, so as not to pollute the water.
(2) regulation of water quality: leeches are not strict on the environment and water quality requirements. The water temperature should be maintained below 15-30 ℃ will stop feeding, too high also affects the growth, in the dirty water can also grow. But the artificial breeding density is high, the water quality to keep clean as well, to ensure a certain amount of dissolved oxygen. 7 ~ August water temperature is high, pay attention to the appropriate change of water.
(3) wintering management: to ensure that the species leech safe wintering. After winter, the temperature drops to below 10 ℃, leeches stop feeding, drilling into the soil or under the leaves hibernation, early spring stocked leeches have generally grown into adults, can be processed and sold. When fishing, the first water will be drained, and then fished up with the net, selecting the individual large, robust growth of the seed retention, each mu should be retained 15 to 20 kg of seed, centralized into the breeding pool overwintering. It can be drained for overwintering. After drainage, you can cover the surface of the pool with straw or wooden poles to prevent freezing and keep the soil moist. You can also overwinter with ice, to deepen the pool water appropriately to prevent complete freezing.
5. Economic value
Harvesting
Caught in summer and fall. After catching it, wash it, smother it with lime or wine first, and then dry it in the sun or roast it. The Japanese medical leech is usually threaded through the middle of the body and hung up to dry in the sun; the tea-colored leech is not only threaded, but also elongated at one end of the body and made into a narrow strip. Because of the different shapes after processing, the dried Japanese medical leech is called "leech", the dried wide-bodied golden leech is called wide leech, and the dried tea-colored leech is called long leech.
1. Wide leeches: summer and fall for the production period, produced in lakes with a large body, the body of those produced in the paddy field is small, fished out of the sun in the sunshine, or in the pot roasted.
2. long leeches: harvesting method as above, but after fishing with a line up, the body of the end of the elongated, hanging in the sun at the sun dry.
3. Leeches: harvested with the leech, fished out and threaded with a line, often from the middle of the body to wear, held in the sun to dry.
Note: the real medicinal leeches are small, long and yellow, easy to break the pick, do not mistakenly use the mud leech head garden body broad, served in the eyes of the people smoke, and gradually to the withered. With leeches must be exposed to dry, boil black with lard, so that the research is very fine, if the moxibustion does not penetrate the end of the water is still alive after a few years, the human abdomen is still able to regenerate. All use must be boiled black in advance, to a small amount of water within seven days does not live, can only be used.
Ancient medical books have recorded the use of leeches to treat a variety of diseases, said its main chase bad blood, blood stasis, the moon is closed, break the blood to eliminate accumulation. Zhang Zhongjing, the medical sage, used it to dispel evil and support the right,
The treatment of blood stasis, water knot syndrome, showing its unique efficacy.
The later Zhang Xichun praised this medicine: the storage of blood stasis without hurting new blood, purely generated by the essence of water, in the qi without any damage, and blood stasis in the invisible, a really good medicine.
A.D. 1500 years ago, the Egyptians first medical leech bloodletting therapy, to the beginning of the last century, the Europeans are more superstitious medical leech can suck the sick blood in the body, regardless of the headache, brain fever with medical leech sucking blood treatment. Later, with the development of medicine, this kind of treatment method with superstitious color was gradually abandoned. The new use of leeches in medicine is getting a lot of attention.
Plastic surgeons use leeches to eliminate blood stasis and reduce necrosis in areas where blood vessels have become occluded after surgery, thus improving the success rate of surgeries such as tissue transplantation and breast formation. Doctors use medical leeches to suck blood when reimplanting or transplanting fingers, toes, ears, and noses, which opens up the veins and greatly improves the success rate of surgery.
This is due to the leech's salivary glands secretion of anticoagulant hirudin when sucking blood, as well as vasodilating histamine-like substances. 1987, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Aquatic Animal Research, leech group and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Hubei Orthopedic Department of the collaboration of the first application of leeches to treat the stasis of the severed finger replantation surgery, the success of a number of cases, by the domestic and foreign widely acclaimed.
The leech saliva contains a variety of active substances are widely valued by scientists from all over the world, and has become a hot topic in the utilization of resource animals. 1984 American leech expert Dr. Sawyer founded the world's first leech farm and biochemical drug company in Wales, UK, which produces hirudin and hyaluronidase that have been sold to Europe and the United States and Japan, and also sells tens of thousands of live medical leeches. tens of thousands of live medical leeches.
Another medical leech farm was built in Charleston, USA; France and Germany have transferred the gene for the synthesis of hirudin to yeast and E. coli, and are using genetic engineering to produce cheap hirudin. It is evident that the need for and production of hirudin is expanding.
Hirudin is a low molecular weight (7000) polypeptide consisting of 65 amino acids, with high levels of glutamine and asparagine, and a low isoelectric point (3.8-4.0), which is stable over time at room temperature. Hirudin is the most effective natural anticoagulant known, which is superior to heparin, with anticoagulant and thrombus-dissolving effects, i.e., the effect of activating blood circulation and removing blood stasis as described in traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, it shows great superiority and broad prospect in dealing with diseases such as septic shock, atherosclerosis, cerebrovascular infarction, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, ophthalmology, and a variety of diseases lacking antithrombin.