ZooTRIP. Zoonotic transmission of intestinal parasites: implications for control and elimination

肠道寄生虫，特别是寄生虫，在低收入和中等收入国家的农村和贫穷的城市地区极为普遍。肠道蠕虫对人类健康和儿童发育有长期的、往往是潜伏的影响，包括腹部问题、贫血、发育迟缓和消瘦。许多肠道蠕虫的传播涉及粪便-口腔途径：蠕虫卵通过人类或动物的排泄物排入环境中，个人通过摄入这些虫卵而感染，例如当儿童在受污染的泥土中玩耍时。在其他情况下，感染是通过摄入受感染动物的肉类而发生的。然而，对于动物在肠道蠕虫传播到人类中所起的整体作用，人们了解得很少。为了设计有效和可持续的肠道蠕虫控制策略，并最终阻止它们感染人类，这些信息非常重要。这个项目将在菲律宾进行，那里肠道蠕虫感染很普遍，特别是在农村社区。后院养殖是非常常见的，这让人们非常接近他们的牲畜。此外，该国是世界上养狗比例最高的国家之一，还有许多流浪狗和流浪猫。因此，肠道蠕虫很可能是从动物传给人的。该项目将汇集一个拥有不同学科专业知识的国际知名研究人员团队，以评估动物和环境污染对菲律宾人类肠道蠕虫感染的贡献。作为第一步，将在棉兰老岛的两个不同地区进行实地研究，以调查在人类、动物和环境中传播的肠道蠕虫。对于一些肠道蠕虫来说，很难确定它们是起源于动物还是人类。因此，将对在菲律宾收集的肠道蠕虫进行DNA测序，以确定可用于区分人和动物来源的蠕虫的遗传标记，并检测它们对驱虫药物的抗药性。这将允许对实地研究期间收集的肠道蠕虫样本进行遗传特征分析。然后将建立数学模型，将实地研究的信息和蠕虫样本的遗传数据结合在一起，以量化动物和环境污染对肠道蠕虫向人类传播的影响，并预测不同控制策略的影响。最后，将对菲律宾肠道蠕虫感染的社会经济和健康影响进行评估，并为政策制定者制定一套建议。通过采用一个健康的方法，该项目将为菲律宾人和动物的肠道蠕虫流行病学提供新的线索，并量化动物对人类感染的贡献。项目成果将有助于制定新的控制战略，从而提高菲律宾和全世界肠道线虫控制的有效性和可持续性，并最终改善流行地区的卫生状况。评估肠道蠕虫对人和动物的社会经济影响将为政策制定者和资助者提供重要证据。

Gut parasites, in particular parasitic worms, are extremely widespread in rural and poor urban areas of low and middle-income countries. Gut worms have chronic and often insidious effects on human health and child development including abdominal problems, anaemia, stunting and wasting. The spread of many gut worms involves a faecal-oral route: worm eggs are shed into the environment by human or animal defecation and individuals become infected through ingestion of these eggs, for example when children play in contaminated dirt. In other instances, infection occurs through ingestion of meat from infected animals. However, there is a poor understanding of the overall role played by animals in the spread of gut worms to humans. This information is very important in order to design effective and sustainable strategies for control of gut worms and ultimately to stop them infecting humans.This project will take place in the Philippines where gut worm infections are widespread, particularly in rural communities. Backyard farming is extremely common, bringing people in close proximity to their livestock. In addition, the country has one of the highest rates of dog ownership in the world and there are many stray dogs and cats. Thus, there is likely significant transmission of gut worms from animals to people. The project will bring together a team of internationally respected researchers, with expertise in different disciplines, to assess the contribution of animals and environmental contamination to human gut worm infection in the Philippines. As a first step, a field study will be carried out in two distinct areas on the island of Mindanao to investigate gut worms circulating in humans, animals and the environment. For some gut worms it is difficult to determine whether they originated in animals or humans. Therefore DNA sequencing of gut worms collected in the Philippines will be carried out to identify genetic markers which can be used to distinguish between worms of human and animal origin and to detect their resistance to deworming drugs. This will allow genetic characterisation of gut worm samples collected during the field study. Mathematical models incorporating information from the field study and genetic data from the worm samples will then be developed to quantify the contribution of animals and environmental contamination to spread of gut worms to humans and predict the effects of different control strategies. Finally, an evaluation of the socio-economic and health impacts of gut worm infections in the Philippines will be conducted together with development of a set of recommendations for policy makers.By embracing a One Health approach this project will shed new light on the epidemiology of gut worms in humans and animals in the Philippines and quantify the contribution of animals to human infection. Project findings will enable development of novel control strategies, leading to increased effectiveness and sustainability of gut worm control in the Philippines and worldwide, and ultimately to improvements in health in endemic areas. The assessment of socio-economic impacts of intestinal helminths in humans and animals will provide crucial evidence for policy-makers and funders.