As a consequence of large-scale outdoor slaughter of sheep during the 2001 foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the United Kingdom and the possibility of increased risk for transmission of Echinococcus granulosus between sheep and dogs, a large survey of canine echinococcosis was undertaken in mid-Wales in 2002. An Echinococcus coproantigen-positive rate of 8.1% (94/1,164) was recorded on 22% of farms surveyed, which compares to a rate of 3.4% obtained in the same region in 1993. Positivity rates between FMD-affected properties and unaffected ones did not differ significantly. Significant risk factors for positive results in farm dogs were allowing dogs to roam free and the infrequent dosing (>4-month intervals) of dogs with praziquantel. When these data are compared to those of a previous pilot hydatid control program in the area (1983–1989), an increase in transmission to humans appears probable.
Echinococcus granulosus infection in sheep and dogs has been known to be endemic in parts of Wales and the English borders for many decades. An analysis of national hospital records for the period 1974–1983 showed that the incidence of human cystic echinococcosis was 0.2 cases per million in England and 2 cases per million population in Wales, with highest rates (5.6 cases per million) occurring in southern Powys County. To reduce the incidence of human cystic echinococcosis (also called cystic hydatid disease), a voluntary hydatid control program of supervised dog dosings at weekly intervals with praziquantel was introduced in south Powys in 1983 and continued until 1989. Ovine hydatidosis rates in the intervention area dropped from 23.5% to 10.5% after that period, and experimental use of sentinel lambs confirmed that transmission of E. granulosus was significantly reduced by this regime. Trend analyses of hospital admissions of human hydatid disease showed that, by 1993, clinical cystic echinococcosis disease in children (<15 years old) had ceased in the intervention area.
However, a new focus of human cystic echinococcosis was identified for the period 1984–1990 in an area bordering south Powys, namely, the northern parts of the counties of Gwent and mid-Glamorgan. Furthermore, canine echinococcosis rates, measured indirectly with an Echinococcus-specific coproantigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), reflected the clinical data for intervention and nonintervention areas.
In 1989, the supervised dog-dosing program was stopped and replaced by a health education program. A follow-up abattoir and dog coproantigen survey in 1995 to 1996, however, indicated that E. granulosus infection had reemerged in sheep and dogs in the previous hydatid-control intervention areas. In 2001, the foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemic in sheep in England and Wales affected some farms in both the former hydatid-intervention and nonintervention areas. Concern was raised that dog access to carcasses of sheep, euthanized as part of the FMD control program and awaiting incineration, could amplify the prevalence of infection in dogs and thereby the subsequent risk for humans. A third coproantigen survey of farm dogs in south Powys and north Gwent was therefore undertaken in 2002 to determine the prevalence of canine echinococcosis in the former hydatid-intervention and nonintervention areas.
Emerging Infectious Diseases
April 12, 2005
Original web page at Emerging Infectious Diseases