Canine echinococcosis: an alternative for surveillance epidemiology

The essential activities for programmes of cystic echinococcosis control ar e the census of all dogs from the program and identification of parasitised animals. Currently, in South America evaluations and epidemiological surve illance are based on the administration of arecoline hydrobromide. This met hod has the disadvantage of increasing environmental pollution and risk for operators and owners of treated dogs. A genus-specific ELISA capture metho d has been employed for recently issued faeces and the confirmation of posi tive examination was performed by dog autopsies. Our work presents an alter native method based on collection of dry field-dispersed faeces, followed b y serological diagnosis by Copro-ELISA and confirmation by Copro-Western bl ot. If Copro-ELISA were used to define positive samples of dry faeces, the Copro-Western blot assay would provide 70% sensitivity and 100% specificity . Global efficiency of the system using dry faeces would reach 76%, allowin g epidemilogical surveillance to be oriented to analysis of surface units i nstead of dog as measurement unit. (C)2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.