[Epidemiological characteristics of canine Echinococcus infection in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China].

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is known as one of the highest endemic areas of echinococcosis. However, the dog infection rates of Echinococcus granulosus in the plateau regions were similar to other non-Tibetan areas with the high endemic, and most of the rates were below 40%. The infected dogs with E. multilocularis were ubiquitous in Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province and Qinghai Province where many survey data were done and available, which was much different from those in non-Ti-betan areas where the geographical distribution of dogs infected with E. multilocularis was sporadic. The total infection rates of Echinococcus in dogs kept stable from 1983 to 2009 in Ganzi Prefecture of Sichuan Province and did not show much variation from 2000 to 2014 in Qinghai Province as well. Since 2006, the national comprehensive prevention and control strategy and measures against echinococcosis have been launched in China, and significant progress has been made. In the endemic Tibetan area of Sichuan, the general Echinococcus infection rates in dogs were 28.10%, 15.87%, 19.22%, 3.28% and 1.11% from 2009 to 2013, respectively, and the Echinococcus coproantigen-positive rate in Gannan Prefecture of Gansu Province and parts of Qing-hai Province also decreased. This paper reviews the literature on the characteristics of dog infections in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, so as to provide useful information to support echinococcosis control and prevention there.