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Before tiny crustaceans like crayfish, shrimp and shrimp do fall into our plates, they must first grow themselves – and it turns out that they are enjoying the snails from their plates. freshwater that transmit the parasite that causes schistosomiasis, the second most devastating parasitic disease in the world, after malaria.
A new study by the University of California, Berkeley, provides researchers with a roadmap of how entrepreneurs can exploit the voracious appetite of freshwater shrimps to reduce the transmission of these parasites, also known as "blood turkeys". while realizing an animal benefit as food.
The study, which appears in the journal Nature Sustainability, shows how small-scale farming of freshwater shrimp, also called aquaculture, could be of benefit to communities in emerging and developing economies, where schistosomiasis is common.
"River shrimps are common aquaculture products around the world, and we know that these organisms are voracious predators of snails that transmit schistosomiasis," said Christopher Hoover of the University of Berkeley, PhD student at the Division. Environmental Health Sciences from the School of Public Health. directed the study. "What has not been clear, is if we could combine the economic benefits of shrimp aquaculture with shrimp disease control activity."
Aquaculture is growing rapidly around the world and could ease the growing pressures on wild fisheries. Freshwater shrimps are already produced in aquaculture systems around the world, from Louisiana to Thailand, Thailand and beyond.
In these aquaculture systems, juvenile shrimp are first raised in hatcheries, then stored in streams where schistosomiasis is transmitted, and then harvested as soon as they reach commercial size. As they grow, shrimps feed on snails carrying the schistosome parasite.
The parasite is unable to infect the shrimp itself and schistosomiasis is not spread by ingestion. Therefore, the breeding, harvesting and consumption of shrimp can not transmit the disease.
The researchers used economic and epidemiological models to determine the best points for storing and harvesting shrimp, with the common goal of reducing schistosomiasis transmission and generating income from the sale of harvested shrimp.
"Our results show that there are extremely beneficial configurations of shrimp aquaculture systems that minimize trade-offs between generating income from shrimp harvesting and reducing schistosomiasis transmission," Hoover said. "We can design systems to maximize profits while having a huge impact on reducing disease, potentially helping to lift people out of poverty in emerging and developing economies."
Schistosomiasis, also called "snail fever", affects about 250 million people a year and kills up to 200,000. The disease spreads mainly when people come in contact with the disease. contaminated water. Although drugs are available to treat the disease, they are not enough in some settings. Since drug treatments only take into account the human component of the parasite's transmission cycle, people remain vulnerable to reinfection, even shortly after treatment.
By acting on the environmental component of the transmission cycle – the intermediate snail host population – shrimp-based interventions can complement drug treatment, thus providing greater benefits to the population.
The model showed that, to reduce parasite loads, the introduction of native shrimp into infected streams was comparable to the standard approach for large scale administration of schistosomiasis reduce the parasite load to near zero after 10 years.
Shrimps may also have environmental benefits, including the substitution of chemical pesticides to control snail populations and the restoration of native biodiversity in areas where native shrimp species have been decimated by dams.
"This research is a new tool for our global efforts to control schistosomiasis," said Justin Remais, chief of the environmental health sciences division and co-author of the study. "Poverty and schistosomiasis are intrinsically linked, and parasite transmission is known to retard the growth and cognitive development of children and prevent adults from working, thus reinforcing poverty. By targeting the transmission of the parasite itself, while supporting a locally-based production system that generates economic benefits for the community, this approach offers considerable potential to complement the ongoing disease control campaigns that lie at the heart of the community. usually on the sole treatment of addiction.
This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: Content may have changed for length and content. For more information, please contact the cited source.
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