Abstract
BackgroundTaenia saginata cysticercus is the larval stage of the zoonotic parasite Taenia saginata, with a life-cycle involving both cattle and humans. The public health impact is considered low. The current surveillance system, based on post-mortem inspection of carcasses has low sensitivity and leads to considerable economic burden. Therefore, in the interests of public health and food production efficiency, this study aims to explore the potential of risk-based and cost-effective meat inspection activities for the detection and control of T. saginata cysticercus in low prevalence settings.MethodsBuilding on the findings of a study on risk factors for T. saginata cysticercus infection in cattle in Great Britain, we simulated scenarios using a stochastic scenario tree model, where animals are allocated to different risk categories based on their age, sex and movement history. These animals underwent different types of meat inspection (alternative or current) depending on their risk category. Expert elicitation was conducted to assess feasibility of scenarios and provide data for economic analysis. The cost-effectiveness of these scenarios was calculated as an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, using the number of infected carcasses detected as the technical outcome.ResultsTargeting the high-risk population with more incisions into the heart while abandoning incisions into the masseter muscles was found to reduce the total number of inspections and cost, while simultaneously increasing the number of infected carcasses found.ConclusionsThe results suggest that, under reasonable assumptions regarding potential improvements to current inspection methods, a more efficient and sensitive meat inspection system could be used on animals categorised according to their risk of harbouring T. saginata cysticercus at slaughter. Such a system could reduce associated cost to the beef industry and lower microbial contamination of beef products, improving public health outcomes.
Highlights
Taenia saginata cysticercus is the larval stage of the zoonotic parasite Taenia saginata, with a life-cycle involving both cattle and humans
Farms which appeared in the movement history of animals detected positive to T. saginata cysticercus cysts at slaughter during the period of January 1st 2013 to January 31st 2014 were identified as High-risk farm (HRF), while only the male animals of 0–20 months of age at slaughter were identified as Low-risk animal (LRA), with all others being High-risk animal (HRA)
An animal may present with both viable and non-viable cysts at inspection, making it difficult to define an estimated time-point for infection [15]. With these caveats in mind, in this study we combined findings on risk factors for T. saginata cysticercus in Great Britain (GB) and some European Union (EU) countries to design a risk-based system that incorporates an alternative inspection, which could equate to a hypothetical alternative inspection to identify and handle carcasses infected with T. saginata cysticercus
Summary
Taenia saginata cysticercus is the larval stage of the zoonotic parasite Taenia saginata, with a life-cycle involving both cattle and humans. The public health impact is considered low. In the interests of public health and food production efficiency, this study aims to explore the potential of risk-based and cost-effective meat inspection activities for the detection and control of T. saginata cysticercus in low prevalence settings. Taenia saginata cysticercus is found in cattle and is the larval stage of the adult tapeworm T. saginata. Cattle are infected through ingestion of feed or water contaminated with human faeces containing the eggs of the tapeworm. Oncospheres develop into cysticerci, becoming infective to humans in 10 weeks [1]. The disease is considered to have a low public health impact [2], and cases may go unnoticed and unreported. A recently published literature review concludes that it is difficult to assess the public health relevance of T. saginata cysticercus due to the lack of an accurate estimate for prevalence in Europe [4]
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