Animal cysticercosis in indigenous Brazilian villages

Abstract

Sanitary inspection of beef and pork meat has been the major tool for diagnosing animal cysticercosis and for preventing taeniasis in Brazil. The indigenous villages Jaguapiru and Bororo are located close to the urban area of the municipality of Dourados in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, where precarious basic sanitation conditions are observed. Both cattle and pigs are raised for self-consumption of meat and milk as well as for sale on the external market, generally without official sanitary inspection. In this study, 96 bovine carcasses and 117 pig blood serum samples from animals raised in these indigenous villages were evaluated for the presence of metacestodes by postmortem evaluation, and anti-Taenia sp. antibodies were investigated using the indirect ELISA test. Metacestode forms were observed in 18.7% of the bovine carcasses, and 9.4% of the pig serum samples were positive for anti-Taenia sp. antibodies. The occurrence of animal cysticercosis in the villages may favor the occurrence of this zoonosis in the indigenous populations. Enforcement of proper slaughter and sanitary inspection conditions are urgently needed for controlling the taeniasis-cysticercosis complex among the indigenous population.

Herd-level spatial cluster analysis of bovine cysticercosis in the state of Paraíba, northeastern Brazil

“…In the state of Paraiba, most farms are family-run or subsistence farms, with predominantly mixed production and semi-intensive farming (CLEMENTINO et al, 2015). This leads to inappropriate practices such as self-consumption of the farm's meat or selling it within the community, without any sanitary inspection (ARAGÃO et al, 2010). Thus, the cattle may be exposed to important environmental risk factors for bovine cysticercosis, such as surface water, flooded pastures and grazing on pastures contaminated with T. saginata eggs from human feces, which favors persistence of the taeniasis-cysticercosis complex (BARBOSA et al, 2001;BOONE et al, 2007).…”