The Styx Field Trial: effect of treatment of the definitive host for tapeworms on larval forms in the intermediate host.

A 13-year assessment has been made of the effectiveness of a monthly drug treatment programme for the control of tapeworms in dogs in order to prevent hydatidosis (Echinococcus granulosus) and cysticercosis (Taenia hydatigena and T. ovis) in sheep. The age-specific prevalence of T. hydatigena in lambs was used as the principal indicator. The trial was carried out in the Styx Valley of the Maniototo Plain in the South Island of New Zealand.Over an 8-year period dogs were treated monthly with bunamidine hydrochloride at about 25 mg/kg with little effect on the prevalence of T. hydatigena in lambs. The addition of niclosamide at 50 mg/kg for 1 year also had little effect. Eggs appeared to survive from one season to the next. Those shed prior to the lamb-rearing season gave rise to endemic-type patterns; whereas patent infections occurring during this period rapidly gave rise to an epidemic-type pattern or a "cysticercosis storm". In this 9-year period there were 16 "cysticercosis storms" and all susceptible lambs were infected. These storms did not necessarily give rise to a similar prevalence on neighbouring farms, but may have contributed to the overall infective pattern. A similar situation occurred in the first year that nitroscanate at 100 mg/kg was introduced. During this 10-year period, arecoline surveillance of the dog population was undertaken in the remainder of the county and many dogs were found to harbour tapeworms. Both resident and introduced dogs may have contributed to the infective patterns in the Styx Valley.Treatment with nitroscanate was continued monthly in the Styx Valley and niclosamide was used in the remainder of the County for a further 3 years. There was a marked reduction in the age-specific prevalence and lambs on many farms were free from T. hydatigena at slaughter. However, one "breakdown" occurred and this was almost certainly autochthonous.Comparisons with an earlier period when arecoline surveillance was used in the Styx Valley, indicate that the present evidence favours a drug-orientated treatment programme of the definitive host for the control of cysticercosis. However, "breakdowns" caused by either autochthonous or itinerant sources have profound effects, since they involve all susceptible age-cohorts including those that have never been infected and those that have lost the immunity induced by an earlier infection.