Suchergebnisse

Human and porcine cysticercosis is endemic in West Africa, where epilepsy is relatively common, but rarely reported due to fear of stigmatization. Neurocysticercosis, caused by Taenia solium, tends to affect the poor in developing countries and control is hampered by inadequate infrastructure and financial resources coupled with lack of adequate information about its significance and distribution. The risk factors for human cysticercosis are closely associated with the characteristics of smallholder or backyard pig farming systems prevalent in this region. Poverty, ignorance and lack of political will militate against successful eradication, while tools for effective diagnosis, prevention and treatment, including vaccines for pigs, are not yet available in many countries. Cysticercosis was targeted for control by The World Health Organization global plan for 2008–2015; however, measures for control are yet to be undertaken in a coordinated manner in West Africa. Diagnostic tools, including neuroimaging facilities, should be strategically situated and made accessible to rural populations in West Africa. Community education in combination with a multipronged approach consisting of vaccination of pigs using TSOL18 vaccine and treatment with oxfendazole along with mass chemotherapy of humans with praziquantel could eliminate taeniasis and should be considered. In-depth and extensive epidemiological studies are required in West Africa in order to fully elucidate the prevalence of T. solium and to support more coordinated and effective control of human and porcine cysticercosis.

Shared use of rangelands by livestock and wildlife can lead to disease transmission. To align agricultural livelihoods with wildlife conservation, a multipronged and interdisciplinary approach for disease management is needed, particularly in data-limited situations with migratory hosts. Migratory wildlife and livestock can range over vast areas, and opportunities for disease control interventions are limited. Predictive frameworks are needed which can allow for identification of potential sites and timings of interventions. We developed an iterative three-step framework to assess cross-species disease transmission risk between migrating wildlife and livestock in data-limited circumstances and across social-ecological scales. The framework first assesses risk of transmission for potentially important diseases for hosts in a multi-use landscape. Following this, it uses an epidemiological risk function to represent transmission-relevant contact patterns, using density and distribution of the host to map locations and periods of disease risk. Finally, it takes fine-scale data on livestock management and observed wildlife-livestock interactions to provide locally relevant insights on disease risk. We applied the framework to characterize disease transmission between livestock and saiga antelopes Saiga tatarica in Central Kazakhstan. At step 1, we identified peste-des-petits-ruminants as posing a high risk of transmission from livestock to saigas, foot-and-mouth disease as low risk, lumpy skin disease as unknown and pasteurellosis as uncertain risk. At step 2, we identified regions of high disease transmission risk at different times of year, indicating where disease management should be focussed. At step 3, we synthesized field surveys, government data and literature review to assess the role of livestock in the 2015 saiga mass mortality event from pasteurellosis, concluding that it was minimal. Synthesis and applications. Our iterative framework has wide applicability in assessing and predicting disease spill-over at management-relevant temporal and spatial scales in areas where livestock share space with migratory species. Our case study demonstrated the value of combining ecological and social information to inform management of targeted interventions to reduce disease risk, which can be used to plan disease surveillance and vaccination programmes.

Shared use of rangelands by livestock and wildlife can lead to disease transmission. To align agricultural livelihoods with wildlife conservation, a multipronged and interdisciplinary approach for disease management is needed, particularly in data‐limited situations with migratory hosts. Migratory wildlife and livestock can range over vast areas, and opportunities for disease control interventions are limited. Predictive frameworks are needed which can allow for identification of potential sites and timings of interventions. We developed an iterative three‐step framework to assess cross‐species disease transmission risk between migrating wildlife and livestock in data‐limited circumstances and across social‐ecological scales. The framework first assesses risk of transmission for potentially important diseases for hosts in a multi‐use landscape. Following this, it uses an epidemiological risk function to represent transmission‐relevant contact patterns, using density and distribution of the host to map locations and periods of disease risk. Finally, it takes fine‐scale data on livestock management and observed wildlife–livestock interactions to provide locally relevant insights on disease risk. We applied the framework to characterize disease transmission between livestock and saiga antelopes Saiga tatarica in Central Kazakhstan. At step 1, we identified peste‐des‐petits‐ruminants as posing a high risk of transmission from livestock to saigas, foot‐and‐mouth disease as low risk, lumpy skin disease as unknown and pasteurellosis as uncertain risk. At step 2, we identified regions of high disease transmission risk at different times of year, indicating where disease management should be focussed. At step 3, we synthesized field surveys, government data and literature review to assess the role of livestock in the 2015 saiga mass mortality event from pasteurellosis, concluding that it was minimal. Synthesis and applications. Our iterative framework has wide applicability in assessing and predicting disease spill‐over at management‐relevant temporal and spatial scales in areas where livestock share space with migratory species. Our case study demonstrated the value of combining ecological and social information to inform management of targeted interventions to reduce disease risk, which can be used to plan disease surveillance and vaccination programmes.

The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above. ; Parasitic infections are the norm in wildlife, livestock and human populations, and healthy ecosystems tend to be rich in parasites. Yet, their negative impacts can be extreme. Understanding how both anticipated and cryptic 'systems change' might affect parasite transmission at an individual, local and global level, both directly and indirectly, is critical for sustainable control. Here we highlight and synthesise evidence regarding potential effects of global change on parasite transmission in natural host-parasite systems, which could inform more refined and sustainable parasite control programmes in domestic animals or humans. Many examples from diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecological systems show how abiotic and biotic factors can interact additively, multiplicatively or antagonistically to modify effects of global change on parasite transmission, including through altered habitat structure, biodiversity, host demographics and evolution. Despite this, few studies of managed systems explicitly consider higher-order interactions, or the effects of parasite evolution, which might either conceal or exaggerate measured impacts of control actions. We call for a more integrated approach to investigating transmission dynamics, which recognizes these complexities and makes use of new technologies for data capture and monitoring, and to support robust predictions of altered parasite dynamics in a rapidly changing world. ; This work was partially funded by the Welsh Government and Higher Education Funding Council for Wales through the Sêr Cymru National Research Network for Low Carbon, Energy and Environment AquaWales Project. ; Peer-reviewed ; Post-print