Incidence and the history of Echinococcus granulosus infection in dogs within the past few decades in Libya: A review

Abstract

Echinococcus granulosus is a tiny tapeworm that parasitizes the small intestine of canids, mainly dogs, which act as definitive hosts for the parasite. Infected dogs are the main source of infection to humans and livestock which act as intermediate hosts resulting in hydatid disease condition. E. granulosus is widely distributed in many parts of the world, and is very common in North African countries. In Libya, the rate of infection with echinococcosis in dogs was reported to be lower than 7 to 80% in stray dogs, 34.8 to 60% in sheep/guard dogs and 7.7 to 21.6% in farm/house dogs. This data fulfills the world health organization (WHO) criteria and suggests that the incidence of infection with echinococcosis/ hydatidosis in some parts of the country can be reaching the level of hyper endemic. Diagnosis of echinococcosis in infected dogs can be performed by isolating the parasite from their faeces or from the contents of their small intestine after necropsy. Recent developments in immunodiagnostic assays for echinococcosis in dogs have been described. Public health and risk factors as well as ways of hydatid disease treatment and various control strategies, including the use of veterinary vaccines, have also been discussed.

Prevalence of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato in Owned Dogs in Lagos State, Nigeria

“…prevalence in the target population was 5.5%, which is similar to what was observed in Kosovo [29]. Higher prevalence was reported in the same target population in Uganda [7], Libya [30], China [12], Turkey [31], and Morocco [6], whereas no evidence of E. granulosus was detected among owned dogs in Germany and other European countries [32]. The E. granulosus prevalence in dogs that we observed in Nigeria is in agreement with a recent meta-analysis study that reported markedly lower values in West Africa (5.5%) compared to East (23.4%) and North Africa (24.7%) [33].…”

Cystic Echinococcosis

“…The protoscolices evaginate, attach to the mucosal lining of their intestine and grow into the adult worms within 6 -8 weeks depending on the parasite strain and host sensitivity (Lightowlers et al 2003;Shnawa et al 2021). Adult worms remain alive in the final host for 5-20 months, then begin to release eggs or gravid segment every 2 weeks (Rahman et al 2015, Thompson et al 2017, Mohamed et al 2017Tse et al 2019).…”

Hydatid Cyst With Focus on Manifestations, Diagnosis, and Management: Review

“…It is difficult to adjust the exposure to echinococcosis that due to difficulty in staying aloof from CE eggs which are transmitted with feces of wild animals causing recurrence of CE, on the other hand, it's difficulties in diagnosis because the disease in animals is asymptomatic [25,31]. However, control of hydatidosis depends on breaking the cycle of infection either by preventing definitive hosts (as dogs) from eating carcasses of infected intermediate hosts or by preventing intermediate hosts (as humans) from eating contaminant food by dog feces [7,32].…”