Abstract
Surveillance for the fox tapeworm, Echinococcus multilocularis, has been carried out in Sweden since 2000, with about 300 red foxes analysed annually. We report the first finding of E. multilocularis in Sweden, in a fox shot in December 2010 in the south-west of the country. A second infected fox shot in the same location was detected in March 2011. This paper describes the national monitoring programme and the ongoing work to estimate the prevalence and spread of the infection.
Highlights
E. multilocularis is endemic in large parts of Europe and has been increasingly reported in animals from countries near Sweden, such as Latvia, Estonia and Denmark [1,2,3,4]
The raccoon dogs and wolves were examined by sedimentation and counting technique (SCT)
The intestine of the fox was examined by SCT and the parasites present were identified as E. multilocularis, both morphologically and by detection of parasite DNA by real-time PCR and sequencing
Summary
Citation style for this article: Osterman Lind E, Juremalm M, Christensson D, Widgren S, Hallgren G, Ågren EO, Uhlhorn H, Lindberg A, Cedersmyg M, Wahlström H. First detection of Echinococcus multilocularis in Sweden, February to March 2011. Surveillance for the fox tapeworm, Echinococcus multilocularis, has been carried out in Sweden since 2000, with about 300 red foxes analysed annually. We report the first finding of E. multilocularis in Sweden, in a fox shot in December 2010 in the south-west of the country. A second infected fox shot in the same location was detected in March 2011. This paper describes the national monitoring programme and the ongoing work to estimate the prevalence and spread of the infection
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