Abstract
Schistosoma japonicum remains highly endemic in many counties in China and has recently re-emerged, to a large extent, in previously controlled areas. To test the hypothesis that small rodents and less agriculturally important domestic animals such as dogs and cats may play an important role in the transmission and potential re-emergence of this disease, an annual investigation of S. japonicum among humans, domestic animals and rodents, combined with detailed surveys of the snail intermediate host, was performed across 3 marshland villages and 3 hilly villages in Anhui province of China over 2 consecutive years. The highest infection prevalence and intensity observed across all mammals was in rodents in the hilly region; while in the marshland, bovines were suspected as the main reservoirs. However, relatively high infection prevalence levels were also found in dogs and cats in both regions. Such results may have implications for the current human- and bovine-oriented control policy for this medically and veterinarily important disease, particularly within the hilly regions of mainland China.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is one of the world’s great neglected diseases, caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma
Great progress has been made in China over the past 5 decades where, for example, the estimated number of infected people was reduced from 11.6 million in 1950s to 0.7 million in 2000, the disease remains endemic in 110 counties, most belonging to the lake/marshland areas, within seven provinces in China (Zhou et al 2005), with an estimate of up to 56 % infection in some villages (Wang et al 2006 a)
Based upon previous estimates of their relative transmission index, bovines are generally considered as the most important species in terms of chemotherapy-based policy (Ross et al 2001 ; Wang et al 2005 ; Gray et al 2007)
Summary
Schistosomiasis is one of the world’s great neglected diseases, caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma. Great progress has been made in China over the past 5 decades where, for example, the estimated number of infected people was reduced from 11.6 million in 1950s to 0.7 million in 2000, the disease remains endemic in 110 counties, most belonging to the lake/marshland areas, within seven provinces in China (Zhou et al 2005), with an estimate of up to 56 % infection in some villages (Wang et al 2006 a). Since the mid-1990s, S. japonicum has reemerged in previously controlled areas and further snail-infested areas have been found in formerly nonendemic provinces such as Shanghai, Zhejiang and Fujian (Zhou et al 2004). Such worrying trends in the re-emergence and/or the continued presence of.
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