title: A baseline study of importance of bovines for human Schistosoma japonicum infections around Poyang Lake, China: villages studied and snail sampling strategy.
abstract: An epidemiologic survey among four administrative villages around Poyang Lake, in Jiangxi Province, China (two experimental and two controls) is being conducted to determine if bovine infections are responsible for the persistence of human schistosomiasis transmission on Yangtze River marshlands. A previously published paper presented the experimental design and baseline data for humans and bovines. This paper presents basic data for the four villages using remote sensing, and baseline data for snails that includes geographic information systems and remote sensing technology to classify the areas of bovine grazing ranges and habitats suitable for snails. A new method for sampling Oncomelania snails in China is used to determine the distribution, density, and infection rates of snails throughout the grazing ranges from season to season over a four-year period. Hypothetically, treating bovines should reduce infection rates in snails to below the critical number necessary to maintain infections in man and bovines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20037, USA. georgedavis99@hotmail.com
authors.forename: George M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Wei-Ping
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hong-Gen
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hong-Yun
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jia-Gang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Dan-Dan
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Sang-Biao
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sleigh
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Donald P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: McManus
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005618:Fresh Water; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D006109:Poaceae; D012424:Rural Population; D017215:Satellite Communications; D012549:Schistosoma japonicum; D012554:Schistosomiasis japonica / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000635:transmission* / Q000662:veterinary; D012908:Snails / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000502:physiology