A baseline study of importance of bovines for human Schistosoma japonicum infections around Poyang Lake, China: villages studied and snail sampling strategy

Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2002 Apr;66(4):359-71. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.2002.66.359.

Abstract

An epidemiologic survey among four administrative villages around Poyang Lake, in Jiangxi Province, China (two experimental and two controls) is being conducted to determine if bovine infections are responsible for the persistence of human schistosomiasis transmission on Yangtze River marshlands. A previously published paper presented the experimental design and baseline data for humans and bovines. This paper presents basic data for the four villages using remote sensing, and baseline data for snails that includes geographic information systems and remote sensing technology to classify the areas of bovine grazing ranges and habitats suitable for snails. A new method for sampling Oncomelania snails in China is used to determine the distribution, density, and infection rates of snails throughout the grazing ranges from season to season over a four-year period. Hypothetically, treating bovines should reduce infection rates in snails to below the critical number necessary to maintain infections in man and bovines.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle / physiology
  • Cattle Diseases / parasitology*
  • China / epidemiology
  • Ecosystem
  • Epidemiologic Methods
  • Fresh Water
  • Humans
  • Information Systems
  • Poaceae
  • Rural Population
  • Satellite Communications
  • Schistosoma japonicum*
  • Schistosomiasis japonica / epidemiology*
  • Schistosomiasis japonica / parasitology
  • Schistosomiasis japonica / transmission*
  • Schistosomiasis japonica / veterinary
  • Snails / parasitology*
  • Snails / physiology