Debilitating human parasite transmitted via dogs eating fish:
Guinea worm disease is usually caught by drinking water containing water fleas that carry the parasite larvae.
The worms mate and grow inside the body, and after 10-14 months the one-metre-long [~40 inch] adult worm emerges, usually from the arms or legs, to shed its larvae back into water.
[...] Eradication programmes have cut human cases of Guinea worm from millions a year in the 1980s to just 27 in 2020.
[...] Targeted surveillance showed that in 2020, 93% of Guinea worms detected worldwide were in dogs in Chad, in central Africa.
Research by the University of Exeter, published today in Current Biology, has revealed a new pathway for transmission – by dogs eating fish that carry the parasite larvae. This means dogs maintain the parasite's life-cycle and humans can still catch the disease.
[The researchers] tracked hundreds of dogs with satellite tags to analyse movements, and revealed dog diets throughout the year using forensic stable isotope analysis of dog whiskers.
Much of the fish eaten by the dogs – usually guts or smaller fish – was discarded by humans fishing on the river and its lagoons.
Professor Robbie McDonald, of Exeter's Environment and Sustainability Institute, who led the study said: "Dogs are now the key impediment to eradicating this dreadful human disease.
Journal Reference:
Cecily E.D. Goodwin, Monique Léchenne, Jared K. Wilson-Aggarwal, et al. Seasonal fishery facilitates a novel transmission pathway in an emerging animal reservoir of Guinea worm. Current Biology, 2021; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.11.050
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @05:24AM (3 children)
The goal is now 2030. I think they are going to massacre those stray dogs.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday December 15 2021, @07:13AM (2 children)
I’ve stopped eating dog shit, which cut my parasite levels down substantially.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15 2021, @07:46PM (1 child)
Only the finest bull shit for me :) I'll swallow that shit down all day.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Frosty Piss on Thursday December 16 2021, @02:53AM
You’ll have to go over to Slashdot for that.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Frigatebird on Wednesday December 15 2021, @08:38AM
As in "The Power of the Dog"? But that was anthrax, raw anthrax. At least Guinea worm won't kill you, unless it eats enough of your brain, after blinding you. Hmm, "Dracunculiasis"? [who.int] Must be a young-blood angle on this somewhere.
(Score: 3, Touché) by MostCynical on Wednesday December 15 2021, @08:55AM (2 children)
refuse and discards... eaten raw by the dogs.
The CDC [soylentnews.org] says the raw part is what matters.
Either the fishermen dispose of the refuse in a way that prevents the dogs from eating it, or they cook it for the dogs.
Both take effort. Easier to shoot the dogs (or the people, if you like dogs more)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Wednesday December 15 2021, @09:26PM (1 child)
Dogs, humans, they're both extremely destructive invasive organisms. Might be best to just wipe them all out for the greater good of the ecosystem.
Of course we are talking Africa here - the native habitat of humans. Though even there we've grossly overtaxed the ecosystem to the severe detriment of virtually every other species. It used to be at least the parasites were thriving, but now we're doing our best to wipe them out too.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday December 19 2021, @01:46AM
Africa is a Pleistocene ecosystem trying to survive modern incursion. Most of it will lose out in the end.