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Reservoir Control Strategies for Leishmaniasis: Past, Present, and Future
Book chapter

Reservoir Control Strategies for Leishmaniasis: Past, Present, and Future

Christine A Petersen and Kevin J Esch
Pathogenesis of Leishmaniasis, pp.67-75
Springer New York
02/13/2014
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9108-8_5

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Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) caused by Leishmania spp. is zoonotic. In many regions dogs serve as the predominant domestic reservoir of disease. This reservoir status has led to multiple efforts to control disease via reservoir control. Historically, public health-oriented strategies have focused on dog culling. Canine culling was established in Palestine in the 1940s and both China and former central republics of the Soviet Union in the 1950s. In these instances, with ample public health infrastructure funded by a centralized state, along with ability to use widespread spraying of DDT, VL transmission was halted but disease was not eradicated in any instance. Canine culling continues to be the predominant policy for VL control in Brazil, despite limited effectiveness. In well-developed countries of Europe with long average life expectancy and overall good health care, education, and nutrition, VL is predominantly found in immunocompromised patients. This is in spite of concurrently high levels of canine VL (cVL) in the same geographic locale. Similar trends are beginning to be seen in areas of rapid economic advancement within Brazil, demonstrating the importance of general health and environmental conditions in prevention of VL. As palatability for widespread canine culling wanes within areas endemic for cVL, combined alternate approaches including topical insecticides, reproductive control, and vaccination should be strongly considered.
Canine Culling Reproductive control Topical insecticides Zoonotic

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