Here’s the ABC Tasmania – Country Hour 18 Sept 2014 interviewing Dr David Jenkins:
A leading researcher in agriculture and veterinary science say tests have shown the presence of hydatids in Tasmania. The State was declared hydatids-free back in 1996 after a campaign over three decades to rid Tasmania of hydatids, but Dr David Jenkins from Charles Sturt University says 300 samples from Tasmania indicated around 40 positive results of hydatid tapeworms.
Dr Jenkins: Hydatids haven’t actually gone from Tasmania unfortunately. It’s still there at very low levels [8% of dogs sampled!] and I don’t want to set everyone into a lather of panic and everything. But, ahh … I think it’s important that we should find out what it’s doing; it is lurking.
Interviewer: David, could you explain what hydatids are?
Dr Jenkins: Well, hydatids is a parasite infection. And older Tasmanians – people of my age – will be very aware of what hydatids is. It is a parasites that transmits dogs – mainly – and sheep; the important thing about this parasite is, you get a little tiny tapeworm that lives in dogs and the eggs produced by this tape worm pass out in the faeces of the dog and these eggs are infective to sheep when they are grazing. But importantly they are also infective to people – humans. Now the impact of these eggs is that hydatid cysts develop in the livers and lungs. ‘’Sheep is the classical – what we call the ‘intermediate host’ for this parasite – the host in which the cysts develop.
This survey all started when I was contacted by the DPIWE and they had an infected cow and we then looked at some dogs in the district – abutting the property where the cow came from and we found a dog that was positive by our tests. The dog was treated and then retested and everything was sweet, the dog was negative.
The thing that I find curious is that we have never had a wildlife part of the hydatid life cycle in Tasmania – which is a big, big issue on the mainland. We’ve only had one case of infected sheep [with hydatids] since 2000 but we’ve had this trickle of infected cattle and we are very unclear about what’s going on.
Interviewer: David, what parts of Tasmania have you tested so far?
Dr Jenkins: Well, we’ve been looking where the cattle infections have been popping up; which is really in the main dairy areas in the northern third of the island.
Interviewer: And how do you treat the hydatids?
Dr Jenkins: as far as dogs are concerned there are very effective products on the market; the drug that kills the tapeworm in dogs is called praziquantel … and you can buy pills for you dog from the supermarket, stock & station agent, and of course from you vet.
Interviewer: And symptoms?
Dr Jenkins: In the dog – zero; they’re as happy as Larry. We suspect that people – or at least some people – although it’s illegal in Tasmania are still feeding offal periodically to dogs. If it just happens to be a liver or a lung or something with a hydatid cyst in it then Bingo! away we go again.
The older people need to tell the younger people about hydatids. We need to feed safe foods to dogs that’s dry biscuits or tinned food or if you want to feed offal which you should be doing, cook it first or freeze it for 10 days in a freezer before you feed it out.
Hydatids Education
Posted Fri at 8:18pmFri 19 Sep 2014, 8:18pm
Calls for an education campaign to ensure dog owners are aware of a parasite which can cause the hydatid infection in humans.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-19/hydatids-education/5757340
Airlie Ward: Tasmanians seem to agree with the saying that dogs are man’s best friend. The State has the highest percentage of dog ownership in Australia with a canine for every 5 people. But dogs can sometimes host a very unpleasant parasite – a tapeworm which can cause hydatids. Half a century ago Tasmania had one of the highest rates of hydatid infection in the world: 28 people died and hundreds had surgery to remove cysts. A concerted effort all but wiped it out and Tasmania was declared provisionally free. However recent research questions that status and highlights the need for an ongoing education campaign.
Sarah Roberts [dog owner]: ‘ … I had no idea about offal [as a banned food for dogs].
Hilary Smith [Puppy school trainer/Dog day care centre owner]: It does seem to surprise people that you’re not allowed to feed offal to dogs in Tasmania. It does seem a lot of people aren’t aware of dog hydatid tapeworms.
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: Other animals such as sheep, cattle, ahh … eating these eggs can develop cysts in their internal organs and the dog get re-infected by eating these cysts. The significant for us [humans] though is people can be infected by the eggs from the dogs and the cysts can develop in people and cause fairly major illness.
Airie Ward: In the 1960 Tasmania had one of the highest rates of human infection of hydatids in the world. One in ten dogs was found to have hydatids and half the state’s sheep population were infected.
A ban on feeding offal to dogs was introduced. If dogs can be kept free of hydatids then the life cycle of the worm is broken and the disease wiped out.
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: we are lucky in Tasmania we don’t see hydatids in wildlife. So if people don’t feed offal, and by offal I mean anything from the internal cavity of sheep or cattle – so hearts, liver, kidneys. If you don’t feed those to dogs, the dogs can’t become infected with hydatids, so we can break the cycle.
The campaign was successful and in 1996 Tasmania was declared provisionally free of the disease.
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: None of the other States have had our hydatids control campaign and hydatids is present in other States. So this is why we require all dogs coming into Tasmania to be treated.
Airlie Ward: However, recent research has found evidence of the hydatid tapeworm in 24 Tasmanian dogs almost two decades after the state was thought to be free of the parasite. Tasmania’s Chief Veterinary officer, Rod Andrewartha says a risk of a resurgence of the disease is very low.
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: Since we declared provisional freedom and remembering that’s 18 years ago, ahh … we’ve had, ahhh … 122 detections of hydatids at slaughter [that is examining livestock offal in the abattoirs] and we’ve followed all those up and the bulk of those have been animals that which we can identify as coming from the mainland. Some as you say have been animals which have only ever been in Tasmania.
Airlie Ward: Dr Andrewartha agrees a renewed focus is needed because there is now a new generation of dog owners who weren’t at school when the education campaign was operating.
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: This article that’s come out in the veterinary journal, is a good reminder that we do need to have, ahh … an ongoing level of awareness with people.
Airlie Ward: There have been no known human infections since the 1970s. At the time a clinician warned against complacency.
Clinician in 1970s: “I’m very frightened that if we relax our guard too much, this disease will come back because it’s a disease that goes on over many, many years.”
Airlie Ward: Feeding offal to dogs in Tasmania remains illegal regardless of whether it is raw or cooked. Processed pet food that contains offal is Ok. 7.30 Tasmania found many supermarkets display their offal next to their process pet food. We also visited a number of butchers who do put offal in their pet mince.
Question: Is it time for a new education campaign for butchers?
Rod Andrewartha, Tas CVO: Possibly so. Unfortunately it is not illegal to sell pet food that contains ahhm, … ahh, offal; it’s illegal to feed it [to dogs].
Airlie Ward: The DPIWE says posters will soon be sent to veterinary practices. Young dog owners want to know the dangers.
