Research provides new tools to combat schistosomiasis

the crustaceans, such as crayfish and prawns, had to get fat themselves before they boarded our plates. In fact, they like to eat freshwater snails, which spread parasites that cause schistosomiasis.
, also known as snail fever, infects 250 million people a year and kills 200,000 people, the world's second most destructive parasitic disease after malaria.
A new study led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, provides a roadmap for how to reduce the spread of schistosomiasis by harnessing freshwater shrimp's greedy appetite for snails, and provides a new tool for global efforts to combat schistosomiasis. The paper, published in Nature-Sustainable Development, shows that schistosomiasis can be a win-win for aquaculture farmers in emerging economies or communities in developing countries.
Freshwater prawns are common aquaculture products around the world, and we know they are predators of snails that transmit schistosomiasis," said Christopher Hoover of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study. It is not clear whether we can combine the economic benefits of farmed shrimp with the disease control activities of shrimp. From
to Thailand to Senegal, freshwater prawns are found in aquaculture systems around the world. Typically, young prawns are first raised in hatching facilities and then reaped at a marketable scale in waterways that can spread schistosomiasis. As prawns grow, they feed on snails that carry schistosomiasis.
schistosomiasis itself does not infect prawns, schistosomiasis cannot be transmitted through food, so raising, harvesting and eating prawns does not spread the disease. The disease is mainly transmitted when people come into contact with contaminated water. Although there are drugs to treat, they can only address the "human" part of the parasite transmission cycle, so people are prone to re-infection, even shortly after treatment.
" poverty and schistosomiasis are innopathic. It is well known that the spread of parasites hinders the growth and cognitive development of children, harms the adult body and exacerbates poverty. Justin Remais, a co-researcher on the study, said.
researchers used economic and epidemiological models to determine the optimal survival and harvesting time for freshwater shrimp, with the goal of reducing the spread of schistosomiasis and making a profit from the sale of prawns.
" Our results suggest that the very beneficial configuration and design of freshwater shrimp farming systems, with scientific trade-offs between economic harvests and disease control, maximize profits while reducing the significant impact of disease, which has the potential to lift populations out of poverty in emerging and developing countries. Hoover said.
prawn-based interventions, which act on the environmental components of the transmission cycle - intermediate host snail populations - can be supplemented with drug treatment to produce greater population benefits. In addition, there may be environmental benefits, such as replacing chemical pesticides with shrimp-controlled snail populations to restore local biodiversity.
The model also shows that, in order to reduce the pressure of schistosomiasis on aquaculture, local shrimp are introduced into infected waterways, comparable to the standard method of large-scale use of anti-schistosomiasis drugs, and that the burden of parasitic pests can be reduced to almost zero after 10 years.
Remais said, "By targeting the spread of parasites themselves while supporting locally sourced production systems, communities can re-benefit from this approach, which has great potential as a useful complement to disease control, which usually relies solely on medication." (Source: Wang Fang compiled by China Science Daily)
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