Epidemiology and Public Health Significance of Hydatidosis: A Review

Abstract

Echinococcus granulosus is an important dog tape worm whose larval stage causes hydatidosis in animals and man. The objective of this review on hydatidosis is to get a comprehensive knowledge about the disease and it had included the data of past 10 years collected from various scientific articles. Food animals such as sheep, goat, cattle etc. act as its intermediate host. It is a major parasitic zoonosis having high economic loss and public health significance and high worldwide prevalence rate. There are different strains of E. granulosus from G1 to G10 which is distributed worldwide infecting various animals and humans. The tapeworm in dogs causes fewer ill effects but in food animals it affects liver, lungs and spleen which lead to condemnation of meat thereby affecting economic value of meat. In humans it causes severe disease mainly cystic echinococcosis and alveolar echinococcosis in addition to two forms of neotropical echinococcosis namely polycystic echinococcosis and unicystic echinococcosis. Diagnosis and treatment of hydatidosis in animals is practically difficult and uneconomical but more promising in human medicine due to advanced techniques. The role of stray dogs in the maintenance of the life cycle of parasite is important hence health education and public awareness are very essential in the control of echinococcosis.

Sero-immunological Investigation of Cystic Echinococcosis: Comparison and Evaluation of Diagnostic Performances of Six Hydatid Cyst Antigens

“…Despite this, developing countries continue to have a high prevalence of CE, especially in rural regions, cystic echinococcosis (CE ( is diagnosed, the quality of illness management and treatment can be significantly improved [5]. This study found that the sero-prevalence of cystic echinococcosis by ELISA using Ps.C antigen was 43.65% in random human sera and 59.78% in random camel sera.…”

“…It has been established that serological immunological molecular assays are helpful not only in the initial diagnosis of infection in humans and animals but also in improving the quality of disease management and in monitoring patients following surgery or other treatments [4]. The socio-economic impact is considerably high since both man and livestock are involved as intermediate hosts [5]. The economic losses in animal production as lowered meat, milk and wool production and health hazard along with treatment costs of cystic echinococcosis in man are enormous [6].…”

Hydatidosis in Menoufia's three Abattoirs, Egypt: Epidemiological, Histopathological, Economic, and Molecular Insights in Cattle and Buffaloes

“…Hydatidosis is a parasitic disease that has significant consequences for both Veterinary Medicine and public health worldwide (Mathivathani et al, 2023). The disease is caused by the metacestode larval stage or hydatid cyst of the tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus, which belongs to the family Taeniidae (El Hassan and El-Bahr, 2022).…”