Echinococcus granulosus

Also known as:

Dwarf dog tapeworm Hydatidosis

Scientific Classification

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Platyhelminthes
Class	Cestoda
Order	Cyclophyllidea
Family	Taeniidae
Genus	Echinococcus
Species	E. granulosus

Echinococcus granulosus is an important zoonosis as its metacestode, the hydatid cyst, can develop in humans, as well as in many other animals. The hydatid cyst can grow to the size of a ping-pong ball in sheep, a tennis ball in horses, and a football in man. The metacestode of the related Echinococcus multilocularis (the alveolar cyst) is even more dangerous, but fortunately does not occur in the UK.

Hosts

Intermediate hosts: Ruminants and man.

Definitive hosts: Dogs and wild canids.

Identification

The adults are 6 mm in length. They have a scolex and three or four individual segments. The brood capsules float in the vesicular fluid, forming 'hydatid sand.'

Life-Cycle

There may be several thousand adult tapeworms in an infected animal. The scolex is deeply buried in an intestinal crypt, so microscopic inspection of a mucosal scraping is necessary to detect infection.

The terminal proglottid forms approximately half the total length. The proglottids are shed in the faeces. The oncosphere are capable of surviving in the environment, for up to two years. They are then ingested by the intermediate host e.g. the sheep, where they penetrate the gut lining.

The oncosphere then travels to the liver and the lungs, where the hydatid then begins growth. This is a slow process taking around 6-12 months, and the cysts are capable of growing up to 20cm in length.

The definitive host e.g. the dog, then ingests the offal of the intermediate host, and the life cycle continues.

The prepatent period of E. granulosus is 6-7weeks. No more than one gravid segment is passed by each tapeworm each week. This species therefore has a low biotic potential. 

Prevalence in the UK:

• human: about 100 new cases of hydatidosis are diagnosed in Britain each year, with 5-10 fatalities occurring. Somw cases are contracted overseas, but endemic “hotspots” occur in Britain, particularly in parts of Wales and some Scottish islands.

• sheep: there is great regional variation. Up to 98% of slaughtered ewes are infected in some localities.

• horses and cattle: up to 10% are infected in some areas.

Epidemiology

E. granulosus has a wide host range and displays great evolutionary plasticity – that is, strains with different biological properties develop readily, each adapted to a particular ecological niche. Extreme examples include dingo-wallaby, wolf-moose and hyena-human cycles. Two strains are recognised in Britain:

1) Dog-sheep strain: infective for cattle and human (not found in Ireland). Dogs become infected if a) fed infected offal, or b) by scavenging dead sheep in hills or on road-side. Sheep dogs are most likely to defaecate in fields around homestead – eggs deposited in faeces and spread across pasture by rain splash, insect activity etc. = sheep become infected when flock brought down for lambing, dipping etc. Humans are infected when eggs from dogs are accidentally ingested (this is normally the only route of infection for humans.

2) Dog-horse strain: more host-specific (in intermediate host) than sheep strain. The horse strain does occur in Ireland, but no human cases reported there – this provides circumstantial evidence that this strain may not be infective for humans. Hunt kennels have been particularly important in dissemination of the horse strain.

Principles of Control

E. granulosus has been eradicated from New Zealand, but this took greater than 20years of intensive effort. Schemes are well advanced in several other countries, but not the UK. To make progress, the following steps must be implemented:

1) Define local epidemiology and collect base-line statistics

2) Registration of all dogs

3) Regular treatment of all dogs (initially at 6week intervals; praziquantel is currently the only suitable drug available – because it is the only drug that kills both adult and immature Echinococcus)

4) Intensive educational programme aimed at farmer and dog owner

5) Regular testing of all dogs to monitor progress and identify non-compliance (the old arecoline purge technique is being replaced by serology or copro-antigen detection)

6) Ensure dogs do not get access to raw offal: meat inspection; burial of carcasses

7) Boiling or freezing offal used for dog food

8) Legislation to enforce compliance

Hepatitis

• Hydatid Disease
• final host
  • dog, fox, and other canids
• intermediate host
  • sheep most commonly affected
  • ox and horses

NB: can also affect man - zoonosis

• hydatids - the cyst form
  • develops from the ova
  • occur in the lung and liver
  • cysts are usually multiple
  • 5-10cm in diameter
  • contain a clear fluid with numerous scolices or "hydatid sand"
  • the small calcified lesions that are sometimes present in the liver of sheep may represent degenerate hydatid cysts
  • can be very prevalent in some geographical areas

Echinococcus cysts (Image sourced from Bristol Biomed Image Archive with permission)

• The intermediate stage of Echinococcus granulosus can be found in the lungs of many species, most commonly in lungs of cattle and sheep
• They range in size up to 5-10 cm diameter and although of little clinical significance, are important as a zoonosis (can be upto football size in man) and because of carcass condemnation