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
The Tibetan plateau of western China has been shown to have a very high prevalence
of human cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus and human alveolar
echinococcosis (AE) caused by Echinococcus multilocularis. The domestic dog is suspected
to be the primary definitive host for the transmission of both E. granulosus and E.
multilocularis to humans in this locality. A purgation study of 371 dogs in Shiqu
County, Sichuan Province during 2002-2003 resulted in an E. multilocularis prevalence
of 12% and an E. granulosus prevalence of 8%. These crude prevalences were then adjusted,
based on the known sensitivity of arecoline purgation for the detection of E. granulosus
and a suggested sensitivity for the detection of E. multilocularis. In addition, it
was assumed that some immature parasites of either species could be misidentified
morphologically and wrongly assigned. This resulted in credible true prevalence intervals
of between 13-33% for E. multilocularis and 8-19% for E. granulosus. Prevalences of
other intestinal helminthes found on purgation were: Taenia spp. 31%, Dipylidium caninum
1%, and ascarids 8%. Risk factors associated with the acquisition of canine echinococcosis
were evaluated based on responses to a questionnaire administered to dog owners. Male
dogs were more likely to be infected with Echinococcus spp. than female dogs (P<0.05)
and dogs allowed to roam were more likely to be infected with E. multilocularis (P<0.05).