A review on epidemiology, global prevalence and economical losses of fasciolosis in ruminants.

Before the 1990s, human fascioliasis diagnosis focused on individual patients in hospitals or health centres. Case reports were mainly from developed countries and usually concerned isolated human infection in animal endemic areas. From the mid-1990s onwards, due to the progressive description of human endemic areas and human infection reports in developing countries, but also new knowledge on clinical manifestations and pathology, new situations, hitherto neglected, entered in the global scenario. Human fascioliasis has proved to be pronouncedly more heterogeneous than previously thought, including different transmission patterns and epidemiological situations. Stool and blood techniques, the main tools for diagnosis in humans, have been improved for both patient and survey diagnosis. Present availabilities for human diagnosis are reviewed focusing on advantages and weaknesses, sample management, egg differentiation, qualitative and quantitative diagnosis, antibody and antigen detection, post-treatment monitoring and post-control surveillance. Main conclusions refer to the pronounced difficulties of diagnosing fascioliasis in humans given the different infection phases and parasite migration capacities, clinical heterogeneity, immunological complexity, different epidemiological situations and transmission patterns, the lack of a diagnostic technique covering all needs and situations, and the advisability for a combined use of different techniques, at least including a stool technique and a blood technique.

Diagnosis of human fascioliasis by stool and blood techniques: update for the present global scenario.

Prevalence of fasciolosis and dicrocoeliosis in slaughtered sheep and goats in Amol Abattoir, Mazandaran, northern Iran

Recently, new strains of Fasciola demonstrated drug resistance, which increased the need for new drugs or improvement of the present drugs. Nanotechnology is expected to open some new opportunities to fight and prevent diseases using an atomic scale tailoring of materials. The ability to uncover the structure and function of biosystems at the nanoscale, stimulates research leading to improvement in biology, biotechnology, medicine and healthcare. The size of nanomaterials is similar to that of most biological molecules and structures; therefore, nanomaterials can be useful for both in vivo and in vitro biomedical research and applications. Therefore, this work aimed to isolate fungal strains from Taif soil samples, which have the ability to synthesize silver nanoparticles. The fungus Trichoderma harzianum, when challenged with silver nitrate solution, accumulated silver nanoparticles (AgNBs) on the surface of its cell wall in 72 h. These nanoparticles, dislodged by ultrasonication, showed an absorption peak at 420 nm in a UV-visible spectrum, corresponding to the plasmon resonance of silver nanoparticles. The transmission electron micrographs of dislodged nanoparticles in aqueous solution showed the production of reasonably monodisperse silver nanoparticles (average particle size: 4.66 nm) by the fungus. The percentage of non hatching eggs treated with the Triclabendazole drug was 69.67%, while this percentage increased to 89.67% in combination with drug and AgNPs.

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/14/11/21887/pdf

The anti-fasciolasis properties of silver nanoparticles produced by Trichoderma harzianum and their improvement of the anti-fasciolasis drug triclabendazole.

Fasciolosis caused by Fasciola spp. (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda: Digenea) is considered the most important helminth infection of ruminants in tropical countries, causing considerable socioeconomic problems. In the present study, samples identified morphologically as Fasciola hepatica from sheep and cattle from different geographical locations of Tunisia and Algeria were genetically characterised by sequences of the first (ITS-1), the 5.8S and second (ITS-2) Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and mitochondrial Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Comparison of the ITS and COI sequences of the North African samples with sequences of Fasciola spp. from GenBank confirmed that all samples from Tunisia and Algeria samples belong to a single species, namely F. hepatica. Several specimens from Tunisia and Algeria showed a substitution C/T in position 859 in the ITS-2 sequences, previously reported from Spain, suggesting that the above mentioned variant may have a common origin and spread recently throughout the three countries because of movement of infected animals. This is the first molecular characterization of F. hepatica in North Africa which provides a foundation for further studies on Fasciola spp. in Tunisia and Algeria.

Genetic characterization of Fasciola hepatica from Tunisia and Algeria based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences.

Epidemiological investigations on Fasciola hepatica fasciolasis were carried out from July 2004 to June 2005 in the Gafsa oases (Tunisia) after the detection of a human case. Three habitats were studied: one in El Gsar and two in Ain Soltan. The prevalence of human infection was 6.6%. The presence of the parasite was detected through serology in 14.3% of cattle, 35% of sheep and 68.4% of goats. The plants Apium nodiflorum, Oxalis cernua and Sonchus maritimus were suspected to be at the origin of animal contamination and Apium nodiflorum was incriminated in human infection. The prevalence of the infection of the intermediate host Galba truncatula (G. truncatula) was 19.2% from July 2004 to June 2005. Gafsa oases constitute a new location for the development of fasciolasis in the southern west of Tunisia.

/pdf/epidemiological-studies-on-fasciola-hepatica-in-gafsa-oases-4vz7m5phtk.pdf

Epidemiological studies on Fasciola hepatica in gafsa oases (South West of Tunisia)

Monthly samples of Bulinus truncatus were collected during a year from a cattle-breeding farm located in the region of Sejnane (North Tunisia) to detect natural infections with Fasciola hepatica and determine seasonal variations of the prevalence throughout a year. Of the 163 adult bulinids, larval forms of F. hepatica were found in 39% of snails. Two peaks in prevalence, the first in June and the second in October, were also noted. Bulinus truncatus can be added to the list of potential intermediate hosts of F. hepatica.

A. Ayadi

Papers

Epidemiological studies on Fasciola hepatica in gafsa oases (South West of Tunisia)

Natural infection of Fasciola hepatica (Trematoda: Fasciolidae) in Bulinus truncatus (Gastropoda: Planorbidae) in northern Tunisia