<i>Echinococcus</i>Infections in Man and Animals in Kenya

Abstract

More than 30 per cent. of the cattle, sheep and goats slaughtered in the central abattoir of the Kenya Meat Commission have hydatid cysts in either the liver or the lungs; the rate is even higher in animals slaughtered in the rural abattoirs (Ginsberg, 1958; Froyd, 1960). In spite, however, of the wide distribution in livestock, hydatids are rarely seen in man, except in the northern desert region of Turkana where the disease is particularly prevalent (Wray, 1958). Both Ginsberg and Wray suggested that this limited distribution might be explained if the main hosts of the parasite were hyaenas and jackals, not dogs. This hypothesis was supported by the absence of previous records of Echinococcus in dogs in East Africa. In the present study on hydatid disease in Kenya, special emphasis was given to an assessment of the role of wild animals as reservoirs of the parasite. More than 100 carnivores were examined for the adult worms and nearly 2,000 miscellaneous animals were examined for the larval stages. Several wild animals were found to be lightly infected, but the main cycle of transmission was between dogs and domestic livestock. A few minor morphological differences were seen in the Kenya material, but it was concluded that the species in dogs and wild carnivores was Echinococcus granulosus.