Epidemiology, Control and Public Health aspects of parasitic diseases

This elaborate is a three-year route spent on epidemiology, control and surveillance of parasitic diseases both domestic animals and wildlife. It includes eight chapters, where each one, except the prelude and conclusions, concerns different projects regarding to the same topic: Epidemiology and Control of parasitic diseases. It deals with the ancient issue, but still modern, of cystic echinococcosis (CE), one of the costliest diseases to treat and prevent. Its prevalence, in cattle, is still the same 8% compared to the one of fifty years back. This tapeworm is still present and affects exotic animals as ring-tiled lemur (Lemur catta) confined in a zoo. Again, it is stressed the marginal role played by other species, different from sheep and dog, in the Echinococcus granulosus (G1 strain) epidemiology. Additionally, it gives updates on the health status of red fox and wild boar populations and on the plausible interactions between domestic animal and wildlife. Indeed, wild boar population shows a prevalence of the genus Metastrongylus of about 97%, whereas the lungworm Crenosoma vulpis, identified based on size and morphology, is recovered from 28.4% of the fox lungs. Helminth community in Apennine wolf illustrates the attitudes to food in terms of predation and parasitic diseases transmission. The first useful data in a surveillance program is to know and count which aetiological agents are present; the experience, carried out in South African preserves, offers interesting control strategies. Surveillance is aimed at, demostrating the presence/absence of a disease or infection, knowing its epidemiology and spreading in order to detect as early as possible exotic, emerging or re-emerging diseases as well as to cut costs for eradication and avoid exportation restrictions. The present thesis demonstrates the importance of intersectoral cooperation, where each stakeholder puts in the own knowledges in order to stem the spread of transmissible diseases.