Showing posts with label country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label country. Show all posts

Friday, 27 November 2015

New article: Echinococcus infections in the Baltic region

Abstract
In the Baltic countries, the two zoonotic diseases, alveolar echinococcosis (AE) caused by Echinococcus multilocularis, and cystic echinococcosis (CE) caused by Echinococcus granulosus, are of increasing public health concern. Observations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania indicate that the distribution of both parasites is wider in the Baltics than previously expected. In this paper, we review and discuss the available data, regarding both parasitoses in animals and humans, from the Baltic countries and selected adjacent regions. The data are not easily comparable but reveal a worrisome situation as the number of human AE and CE cases is increasing. Despite improvements in diagnostics and treatment, AE has a high morbidity and mortality in the Baltic region. For the control of both zoonoses, monitoring transmission patterns and timely diagnosis in humans as well as the development of local control programs present major challenges.

Full article: 
Marcinkutė A, Šarkūnas M, Moks E, Saarma U, Jokelainen P, Bagrade G, Laivacuma S, Strupas K, Sokolovas V, Deplazes P. Echinococcus infections in the Baltic region. Vet Parasitol. 2015 Jul 31. pii: S0304-4017(15)00372-6. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2015.07.032. 

Monday, 2 November 2015

New article: Persistence of Eimeria bovis in soil

Abstract
Eimeriosis is a disease that occurs globally and often affects cattle grazing on pastures contaminated with oocysts of the pathogenic species Eimeria bovis, Eimeria zuernii or Eimeria alabamensis, respectively. Nonetheless, little is understood regarding oocyst persistence on the pasture. The study was performed in the temperate climate zone. Soil samples were spiked with 100,000 E. bovis oocysts in July 2010 or with 50,000 oocysts in October 2010, respectively, both either with our without addition of cattle faeces. The soil samples were exposed to natural environmental conditions until April 2011. A subset of the samples was analysed immediately after spiking as positive control. The oocysts were recovered by a flotation method and counted in a reading chamber. On average, 23 % of the oocysts could be recovered from the positive control. The recovery of oocysts dropped to 0.30 % of the original level in the samples prepared in July independent of the addition of faeces, whereas the oocyst count was higher in the samples prepared in October, both without (2.05 %) and with (2.64 %) faecal material. No differences were observed between presence of oocysts or oocyst counts recovered in the presence or absence of faeces. Presence of faeces had a positive influence on oocyst integrity. During the winter season, the number of oocysts in the soil was lowered under the detection limit in most samples. On the other hand, the comparatively short 3-month summer period had a significant influence on the number of persisting oocysts too.

Full article: 
Lassen B, Lepik T, Bangoura B. Persistence of Eimeria bovis in soil. Parasitol Res. 2013 Jul;112(7):2481-6. doi: 10.1007/s00436-013-3413-4. Epub 2013 Apr 7.