Potentially lethal parasite rat lungworm found throughout Florida – Research News https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/potentially-lethal-parasite-rat-lungworm-found-throughout-florida/
University of Florida researchers have found rat lungworm, a parasitic nematode that can cause meningitis in humans and animals, in five Florida counties. Rats and snails in Alachua, Leon, St. Johns, Orange and Hillsborough counties tested positive for the parasite, according to a study in PLoS O
There are a lot of snail species endemic to South Florida that don’t occur anywhere else