Surveillance for Schistosomasis infected sentinel mice in key water areas of Hubei, 2015

Objective To investigate the water infectivity in key water areas of Hubei province in 2015, analyze the potential transmission risk of schistosomiasis in environments at high-risk for the prevention of human and livestock schistosomiasis infection in flood season. Methods Schistosomiasis endemic areas along the Yangtze River, Hanbei River and the Fuhe River were selected as the surveillance sites. The water infectivity was detected by using the sentinel mice during flood season from June to July and from September to October. The infection status of people in the villages around the surveillance sites and the activities of human and domestic animals were surveyed. The mice were dissected after being raised for 35 days. Results Among the first 14 surveillance areas, 1 positive area with infected mice was found, accounting for 7.14%. Among 302 sentinel mice, and 285 were re-captured. After dissection of these mice, 5 infected mice were detected (1.75%). Totally 21 adult schistosoma worms were collected, with mean worm burden of 4.20 worms per infected mouse. The emergency response mechanism was initiated when infected areas were detected and no epidemic occurred. In the 5 areas for the second round surveillance, 105 sentinel mice were used, and 103 mice were re-captured and dissected, but no positive mice were found. Conclusion Surveillance by using sentinel mice can play an important role in analyzing the schistosomiasis transmission risk.