Let's be vigilant for Echinococcus in the UK.
As Maria once sang "all I want for Christmas is not to have a tapeworm cyst" or something like that...... Mercifully, the UK to the best of our knowledge remains free from the zoonotic tapeworm #Echinococcus multilocularis, a cause of horrendous expansive cystic lesions in people. Dogs act as the host for the adult tapeworm and it is often forgotten that if they ingest eggs in faeces they can occasionally act as intermediate hosts, getting large cysts like the pet in this article. In countries like the USA and Canada, dogs with cysts have acted as useful early sentinels for emerging infection and it may be the first sign of it arriving here in the UK. please remember to treat dogs for tapeworm on entry to the UK in addition to the all important compulsory treatment (because of the 5 day treatment window) and to include Echinococcus on your differential list when finding large unexplained cysts in dogs. Visit ESCCAP UK & Ireland for more Echinococcus information and a very merry festive season and happy new year to everyone, looking forward to exciting parasite work in 2025!