Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas?
Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is endemic in Sardinia and constitutes a serious public health concern due to high prevalence in livestock and humans. Despite sustained efforts, control of the disease had been unsuccessful in the region. Problematic carcass disposal due to soaring incineration costs and...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:601d6f9fa02f4ef9bbbb8519711f81d2 2023-05-15T15:15:10+02:00 Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? Fiammetta Berlinguer Fahad Ahmed Claudia Tamponi Silvia Carta Antonio Scala Maria Grazia Cappai Antonio Varcasia 2021-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/article/601d6f9fa02f4ef9bbbb8519711f81d2 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/article/601d6f9fa02f4ef9bbbb8519711f81d2 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 7, p e0009615 (2021) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 2022-12-31T14:32:28Z Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is endemic in Sardinia and constitutes a serious public health concern due to high prevalence in livestock and humans. Despite sustained efforts, control of the disease had been unsuccessful in the region. Problematic carcass disposal due to soaring incineration costs and free access of dogs to infected carrion are dominant factors, fueling endemicity among other. As sole obligate scavenger, griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) are uniquely specialized to eliminate carcasses swiftly and efficiently, saving on unnecessary environmental and economic costs for carrion disposal. However, following drastic population declines across Europe, griffon vultures practically went extinct in Italy. A conservation expansion program in Sardinia successfully reinforced the last remaining Italian vulture population by mitigating the main threats to its survival; food shortage. Through the establishment of supplementary feeding stations, permanent supply of livestock cadavers was provided. In this research, the management and conservation implications on the controlled disposal of carcass disposal through vulture feeding stations on the control of CE in Sardinia were assessed. During the course of the project, vultures scavenged a total of 81,361 kg of biomass, saving €90,041 in incineration costs and € 1,054 in CO2 emission. Through extrapolation of these results, a total of 5,304 kg of suspected CE infected sheep carcasses (65.3%) was calculated to have been disposed by griffons, considerably reducing the CE risk and burden in Sardinia. A quantification of the amount of biomass that could be eliminated by griffon in a succeeding conservation project was also made. These calculations implied that 162,722 kg of biomass, including 10,608 kg of infected biomass from sheep, would be consumed over a period of 5 years, further lowering the CE burden in Sardinia. Our results, driven under one health approach, emphasize the crucial and direct role of griffons in breaking the lifecycle of CE as well as their ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15 7 e0009615 |
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English |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Fiammetta Berlinguer Fahad Ahmed Claudia Tamponi Silvia Carta Antonio Scala Maria Grazia Cappai Antonio Varcasia Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is endemic in Sardinia and constitutes a serious public health concern due to high prevalence in livestock and humans. Despite sustained efforts, control of the disease had been unsuccessful in the region. Problematic carcass disposal due to soaring incineration costs and free access of dogs to infected carrion are dominant factors, fueling endemicity among other. As sole obligate scavenger, griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) are uniquely specialized to eliminate carcasses swiftly and efficiently, saving on unnecessary environmental and economic costs for carrion disposal. However, following drastic population declines across Europe, griffon vultures practically went extinct in Italy. A conservation expansion program in Sardinia successfully reinforced the last remaining Italian vulture population by mitigating the main threats to its survival; food shortage. Through the establishment of supplementary feeding stations, permanent supply of livestock cadavers was provided. In this research, the management and conservation implications on the controlled disposal of carcass disposal through vulture feeding stations on the control of CE in Sardinia were assessed. During the course of the project, vultures scavenged a total of 81,361 kg of biomass, saving €90,041 in incineration costs and € 1,054 in CO2 emission. Through extrapolation of these results, a total of 5,304 kg of suspected CE infected sheep carcasses (65.3%) was calculated to have been disposed by griffons, considerably reducing the CE risk and burden in Sardinia. A quantification of the amount of biomass that could be eliminated by griffon in a succeeding conservation project was also made. These calculations implied that 162,722 kg of biomass, including 10,608 kg of infected biomass from sheep, would be consumed over a period of 5 years, further lowering the CE burden in Sardinia. Our results, driven under one health approach, emphasize the crucial and direct role of griffons in breaking the lifecycle of CE as well as their ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fiammetta Berlinguer Fahad Ahmed Claudia Tamponi Silvia Carta Antonio Scala Maria Grazia Cappai Antonio Varcasia |
author_facet |
Fiammetta Berlinguer Fahad Ahmed Claudia Tamponi Silvia Carta Antonio Scala Maria Grazia Cappai Antonio Varcasia |
author_sort |
Fiammetta Berlinguer |
title |
Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
title_short |
Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
title_full |
Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
title_fullStr |
Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Help from the sky: Can vultures contribute to Cystic Echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
title_sort |
help from the sky: can vultures contribute to cystic echinococcosis control in endemic areas? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/article/601d6f9fa02f4ef9bbbb8519711f81d2 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 15, Iss 7, p e0009615 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 https://doaj.org/article/601d6f9fa02f4ef9bbbb8519711f81d2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009615 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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e0009615 |
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