Authors

A Juhász¹; LJ Cunningham¹; S Jones¹; J Archer¹; L Field¹; SA Kayuni¹; EJ La Course¹; JR Stothard¹; P Makaula²; D Lally²; G Namacha²; D Kapira²; P Chammudzi²; J Musaya²; E Seto³;  ¹ Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK;  ² Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Programme of Clinical Tropical Research, Malawi;  ³ University of Florida, Gainesville, United States

Discussion

Despite ongoing control, schistosomiasis is widely distributed along Afrika, affecting both the human population and their livestock. Abrupt changes in the genetic makeup of human schistosome worms are known whichly demonstrates the ability to form viable hybrids with closely related Schistosoma species. In April 2022, a total of 153 cattle carcasses were examined, as well as 321 feacal samples and state-of-the-art tracking with remote GPS dataloggers in Malawi. Prevalence of schistosomiasis in cattle was 70% in Mangochi, 63% in Chikwawa, 21% in Nsanje districtsand 21% in Blantyre slaughterhouses. Inspecting the molecular data, it showed that not only Schistosoma mattheei, which was found for the first time in the country, and the previously known S. haematobium worms of human origin, but their introgressive hybrids are also present in domestic cattle in Malawi. Also, praziquantel treatment was given to eight GPS tracked cattle, six weeks post treatment the youngest animal was detected with reinfection, the egg output with age was declined.