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Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

Daily Overview

Session

CP20: Zoonoses & One Health 15 min talks
Location: Lecture Theatre 3
Session Chair: Darren Gray, QIMR Berghofer
Session Chair: Jessica Scott, James Cook University

Presentation 1

Genetic diversity and transmission dynamics of soil-transmitted helminths in humans and dogs in Vanuatu

Molly Waldron¹, Lucas Huggins¹, Patsy A. Zendejas-Heredia¹, Sze Fui Hii¹, Ian Douglas², Nick Sangster², Clare Anstead¹, Paolo Bareng³, Prudence Rymill⁴, Fasihah Taleo⁵, Susana Vaz Nery³, Vito Colella¹

1: The University of Melbourne, Australia; 2: Vets Beyond Borders, Australia; 3: Kirby Institute, UNSW, Australia; 4: Ministry of Health, Vanuatu; 5: World Health Organization, Vanuatu

Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) cause some of the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases worldwide. Despite this, our understanding of diversity across hosts and extent of animal contributions to human infections remains limited. We screened 2,285 humans and 148 dogs from Vanuatu for STHs of public health importance using multiplex qPCR. A subset (n=148 humans, 148 dogs) were sequenced using a nanopore-based approach to characterise the ‘nemabiome’. Given evidence for zoonotic transmission of Ancylostoma ceylanicum and Strongyloides stercoralis, we also sequenced a large region of the cox1 gene in these species to assess haplotype diversity and infer zoonotic STH transmission dynamics. Overall, qPCR detected >1 STH in 48.5% of humans and 97.3% of dogs. Specifically, a prevalence of 8.9% and 64.9% were observed for A. ceylanicum and 3.0% and 47.3% for Strongyloides spp. in humans and dogs, respectively. Nemabiome analysis revealed a greater diversity of intestinal parasites than that detected by qPCR in both hosts. These findings indicate a high abundance of STHs across Vanuatu, supporting the need for mass-drug administration. Molecular data suggest canine-human transmission may be occurring, however further sequencing at nuclear and mitochondrial loci will resolve transmission dynamics and inform the need for control approaches that include animal reservoirs.