title: The landscape epidemiology of echinococcoses.
abstract: Echinococcoses are parasitic diseases of major public health importance globally. Human infection results in chronic disease with poor prognosis and serious medical, social and economic consequences for vulnerable populations. According to recent estimates, the geographical distribution of Echinococcus spp. infections is expanding and becoming an emerging and re-emerging problem in several regions of the world. Echinococcosis endemicity is geographically heterogeneous and over time it may be affected by global environmental change. Therefore, landscape epidemiology offers a unique opportunity to quantify and predict the ecological risk of infection at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Here, we review the most relevant environmental sources of spatial variation in human echinococcosis risk, and describe the potential applications of landscape epidemiological studies to characterise the current patterns of parasite transmission across natural and human-altered landscapes. We advocate future work promoting the use of this approach as a support tool for decision-making that facilitates the design, implementation and monitoring of spatially targeted interventions to reduce the burden of human echinococcoses in disease-endemic areas.
authors.affiliation: Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, New South Wales, Australia. angelamcr@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cadavid Restrepo
authors.affiliation: Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, P. R. China. Yurong.Yang@qimrberghofer.edu.au.|Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Yurong.Yang@qimrberghofer.edu.au.
authors.forename: Yu Rong
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Don.McManus@qimrberghofer.edu.au.
authors.forename: Donald P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: McManus
authors.affiliation: Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, New South Wales, Australia. u5624503@uds.anu.edu.au.|Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. u5624503@uds.anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Darren J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Chrono-environment lab, UMR6249, University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté/CNRS, Besançon, France. patrick.giraudoux@univ-fcomte.fr.|Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France. patrick.giraudoux@univ-fcomte.fr.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giraudoux
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Veterinary Science, Gatton, Queensland, Australia. t.barnes@uq.edu.au.|The University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Gatton, Queensland, Australia. t.barnes@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Tamsin S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. g.williams@sph.uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Gail M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: The University of Queensland, School of Veterinary Science, Gatton, Queensland, Australia. r.magalhaes@uq.edu.au.|Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. r.magalhaes@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Ricardo J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Soares Magalhães
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. n.hamm@utwente.nl.
authors.forename: Nicholas A S
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Hamm
authors.affiliation: Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, New South Wales, Australia. director.rsph@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Archie C A
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Clements
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004443:Echinococcosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004446:Echinococcus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans