25
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Echinococcosis/hydatidosis: a severe threat in Mediterranean countries.

      1
      Veterinary parasitology
      Elsevier BV

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Echinococcosis/hydatidosis is one of the most important parasitic zoonotic diseases in the world. Both cystic hydatidosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus and alveolar echinococcosis (AE) caused by E. multilocularis have been reported in several countries of the Mediterranean region (MR). E. granulosus has always been present in the MR and is the most common species. This parasite depends on the dog-sheep cycle and is actively transmitted in all pastoral regions where sheep, cattle and camelids predominate. E. multilocularis occurs only sporadically in limited areas of France, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco. However recent evidence indicates that it is spreading into other regions of the Mediterranean. Due to the lack of well-documented data, and to the fact that CE is not a notifiable disease in the majority of M countries, the precise incidence and prevalence of CE in humans and animals are not known. Published data suggests that prevalence is rather high in North Africa, Turkey, Greece, and in several regions of Italy and Spain. CE is an increasing public health and socio-economic concern due to the considerable morbidity rates that give rise to high economic losses both in the public health sector and in the livestock industry. Hospitalisation for human CE lasts from 2 weeks to more than 1 month in case of surgery. A number of factors contribute to the increase of prevalence and to the spreading of CE in the MR. These include the diversity of livestock production systems (predominantly extensive, traditional animal husbandry), small, ill-equipped and unsupervised slaughter-houses, illegal and family slaughtering, low public awareness of hydatid diseases, and the high population of stray dogs. Cyprus is the only country where an eradication programme has been successfully implemented. There have been, however, important developments in the last decade in CE epidemiology, in the diagnosis of canine infection, in strain characterisation and in immune strategies against CE in animals. This scientific progress, together with effective health education programmes, will likely improve control programmes and reduce the time required to achieve significant decreases in prevalence or eradication.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          Vet Parasitol
          Veterinary parasitology
          Elsevier BV
          1873-2550
          0304-4017
          Nov 24 2010
          : 174
          : 1-2
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Department of Pathology and Veterinary Public Health, Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases Unit, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, B.P. 60202, Rabat-Instituts, Morocco. a.dakkak@iav.ac.ma
          Article
          S0304-4017(10)00450-4
          10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.08.009
          20888694
          35450826-f269-4573-9725-cd6b7accf49e
          Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
          History

          Comments

          Comment on this article