by Anne-Francoise Petavy, Carlos Hormaeche, Samia Lahmar, Hammou Ouhelli, Alejandro Chabalgoity, Thierry Marchal, Samira Azzouz, Fernanda Schreiber, Gabriela Alvite, Marie-Elisabeth Sarciron, Duncan Maskell, Adriana Esteves, Georges Bosquet

Author Summary

In many countries in the world, livestock and humans are affected with hydatid disease, which is caused by the development, in the viscera, of the larval stage of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus. They become infected by ingesting the eggs of this parasite, which are passed in the feces of the dog—the host of the adult worm. Domestic dogs are key in the transmission to livestock and humans.

This disease remains a major economic and public health problem in affected countries. Because dogs are quickly reinfected, control programs in these locations include monthly anthelmintic deworming. These control measures, however, are burdensome for the owner, so they often fail. In contrast, vaccination can take place in control programs at different stages of the parasite life cycle. For example, currently an effective recombinant vaccine for sheep has been developed that should work indirectly to reduce infection in dogs, which tend to eat sheep offal. However, we propose that a recombinant oral vaccine given to the small number of dogs keeping the herd would decrease the number of Echinococcus granulosus adult worms and, consequently, the number of infective eggs. This measure would help reduce the contamination risk factors for humans and livestock, and would be cost-effective for the owners of the dogs.

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