Changes to the life cycle of liver flukes: dams, roads, and ponds

Abstract

Our research in Laos shows how road building and aquaculture have changed the life cycle of Opisthorchis viverrini, a water-borne trematode that is a major cause of cholangiocarcinoma around the lower Mekong river in southeast Asia. At least 10 million people in this region already have opisthorchiasis and many will die from cholangiocarcinoma in the coming decades.1,2 To address the potential food security issue of reduced numbers of wild fish caught because of dam building, governmental programmes in Laos encourage the construction of home garden ponds to help rural people to produce fish more efficiently.