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Onchocerca ochengi: epidemiological evidence of cross-protection against Onchocerca volvulus in man

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1998

G. WAHL
Affiliation:
Institut für Tropenmedizin, Wilhelmstrasse 27, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany
P. ENYONG
Affiliation:
Medical Research Station, Kumba, Cameroon
A. NGOSSO
Affiliation:
Hôpital Central, Yaoundé, Cameroon
J. M. SCHIBEL
Affiliation:
Lehrstuhl für Populationsgenetik, Universität Tübingen, Germany
R. MOYOU
Affiliation:
Medical Research Station, Kumba, Cameroon
H. TUBBESING
Affiliation:
Hôpital Protestant, Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
D. EKALE
Affiliation:
Institut für Tropenmedizin, Wilhelmstrasse 27, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany
A. RENZ
Affiliation:
Institut für Tropenmedizin, Wilhelmstrasse 27, D-72074 Tübingen, Germany

Abstract

In North Cameroon, the vector of Onchocerca volvulus (causative agent of human onchocerciasis) also transmits 2 filariae of animals: O. ochengi from cattle and O. ramachandrini from wart hogs. In order to assess the qualitative and quantitative roles of these ‘animal filariae’ in the epidemiology of O. volvulus, the transmission of the 3 parasites was measured in 2 villages and related to the endemicity of human onchocerciasis. In Galim, a cattle-farming Guinea savanna village where wild animals are rare, the overwhelming majority of all filarial infections found in the Simulium damnosum s.l. vectors throughout the year were O. ochengi (89%). The remaining infections were mainly O. volvulus (10·5%), and a few O. ramachandrini (0·5%). In Karna, a crop-farming Sudan savanna village where cattle are rare, but wild animals common, flies were also more frequently infected with animal filariae than with the human parasite. In the dry season, when nomadic cattle are present, 54% of all infections were O. ochengi, 36% O. volvulus and 10% O. ramachindrini. In the rainy season, when the cattle move away, flies were mainly infected with O. ramachandrini (52% of all infections) and secondly with O. volvulus (48%). In Karna, the relationship between the Annual Transmission Potential (ATP) of O. volvulus and its prevalence in the human population conformed to other onchocerciasis foci, in that a moderate ATP led to hyperendemic onchocerciasis. In Galim, however, a 7-fold higher O. volvulus-ATP (caused by a very high biting rate of the flies) contrasted with a strikingly low endemicity of onchocerciasis. Since, at the same time, in Galim the transmission of O. ochengi (measured on man) was very high (15000 L3/fly collector/year), we hypothesize that the reduced endemicity of onchocerciasis in Galim is due to ‘natural heterologous vaccination’ by the large annual number of O. ochengi-L3, inoculated into man by anthropo-boophilic S. damnosum s.l. The importance of micro-epidemiology for the understanding of the interlinkage of human and animal onchocerciasis is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1998 Cambridge University Press

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