The significance of wild animals in the transmission of cestodes of medical importance in Kenya

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In Kenya taeniasis is an important medical and economic problem; in some areas infection rates in man approach 100%, and the cysticercosis rate in cattle is around 30%. Because normal control measures, aimed at breaking the cycle between man and cattle, were having little effect on the incidence of infection, a survey was carried out to see if there was a secondary cycle in wild animals. This involved the examination of 143 carnivores, 92 herbivores, 271 primates and 1,672 miscellaneous small animals, providing material for a study of the roles of animals in the transmission of not only Taenia saginata and other cestodes, but also a number of other zoonoses. No T. saginata adults were found in any of the wild carnivores and T. saginata cysticerci were only seen in 1 wildebeeste. Many of the antelopes and a few cattle were infected with other cysticerci which complete their development in wild carnivores. Cysticerci of T. solium are found occasionally in pigs in Kenya, but no adult worms have been found in man. Cysticercosis in man in Africa and Asia may be due to the larval forms of other species acquired from dogs or wild carnivores. There is a high incidence of hydatid infection in cattle, sheep, goats and camels in Kenya, and the disease is an important medical problem in the Turkana district. It had been suggested by the medical and veterinary authorities that wild carnivores might be hosts of the adult worms. In the survey, Echinococcus granulosus was found in several hyaenas, hunting dogs and a jackal, and hydatid cysts were seen in a wildebeeste, but the most heavily infected animals were dogs and domestic livestock. Wild animals are regarded as only incidental hosts. A species of Diphyllo-bothrium was found in 14 of 22 hyaenas in an area of Masailand where sparganosis is not uncommon in man. All "spargana" so far collected from animals have, on sectioning, proved to be tetrathyridia. In this area, where it is the custom of the people to leave their dead and dying relations for the hyaenas to eat, man may be an important intermediate host of this parasite of hyaenas. Inermicapsifer madagascariensis is prevalent in numerous species of rodents in Africa and in man in the West Indies. Only a few cases have been reported from man in Africa. Eight other cases are recorded from children in East Africa, including the 1st record from an indigenous African child. The life cycle is unknown. Coenurus cysts of Multiceps brauni were found in a porcupine and an Otomys swamp rat. This parasite is seen occasionally in man in East Africa and the Congo. Dipylidium caninum is widespread in dogs and jackals and is seen occasionally in children. Hymenolepis nana is prevalent in rodents in Kenya, but it is uncommon in man. Experimental evidence suggests that man is an incidental host of the murine strain.

This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit: