Keep Britain free of killer tapeworm

9 January 2012

What’s new?

The EU has approved the retention of tapeworm controls for dogs entering the UK. The derogation was accepted by the Parliament and the Council of the EU and has been published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Click here to read the new regulation

What's it all about?

Last year BASC lobbied Government officials and they lobbied their EU counterparts for the retention of our worming controls to protect people against the introduction of the killer tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. 

On mainland Europe this tapeworm is rapidly spreading through the fox population and there are growing concerns about protecting the human population. All it takes to get infected is for you to accidentally ingest some tapeworm eggs from dog or fox faeces, so those who shoot and work in the countryside or own dogs are all key risk groups. 

There have already been a number of studies in France and Germany on the use of  treated baits to worm the fox population, in an attempt to reduce the risk of foxes transmitting the tapeworm to humans. To be effective thousands of baits need to be dropped by air and by hand on a monthly basis. One cost estimate was put at €2.50 euros per person per year in urban areas for an effective fox worming programme and that was thought reasonable against the annual cost of having to treat and hospitalise infected and terminally-ill people.

Clearly, it is in all our interests to keep the UK free of this tapeworm.

FIND OUT MORE

Echinococcus multilocularis – an overview

The disease Aveolar echinococcosis in humans is caused by an infection with the larval stage of Echinococcus multilocularis, a tapeworm found principally in foxes, and dogs. Due to its life cycle here is no human to human transmission of the tapeworm.

Click here to view a diagram of the life cycle of Echinococcus multilocularis

People get infected by ingesting eggs that have passed out in the faeces of infected foxes and dogs.  The adult tapeworm that produces the eggs never develops in humans, only in dogs, foxes and other members of the dog family. If an infected dog entered the UK and started infecting other dogs and eventually foxes it would be impossible to eradicate the tapeworm.

Aveolar echinococcosis can take between 10 and 15 years to be diagnosed, by which time it has caused so much damage to the liver that 90% of patients die. In Switzerland, a far smaller country with far fewer foxes, the human death toll is between 20 and 30 cases a year. In the UK we could expect ten times that number if the tapeworm found its way into the fox population.

BASC lobbying in action

BASC raised awareness of this issue in March, with an article in its membership magazine Shooting and Conservation. BASC approached the Defra Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman, seeking an assurance that the Government would maintain its requirement for all dogs entering the UK to be wormed. She subsequently assured BASC that Government officials were talking to their EU counterparts in an attempt to reach agreement on retaining the worming requirement. She reiterated that assurance at the Standing Conference on Countryside Sports in May.

Three BASC members who are members of the House of Lords also raised questions about the Government’s position on the derogation.  Lord Boswell of Aynho and Lord Swinfen both asked what action the Government was taking to retain a requirement that all dogs entering the UK must be wormed. Lord Tebbit asked what measures the Government was proposing to protect humans and dogs from the disease.

In a written answer to the House of Lords on 15th March 2011, Defra minister and BASC member Lord Henley said: “The risk of introducing the tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis into the UK is considered to be negligible. We recognise that without our current treatment regime there would be an increased risk of disease introduction and the disease could become established in the UK rodent or fox population. We are currently in discussion with the European Commission with regard to the long-term tapeworm treatment requirements for pets entering the UK and certain other member states”

On 30th June 2011 Defra announced that it wanted to retain tapeworm controls for dogs entering the UK.

On 14th July 2011 the European Commission published a regulation that would allow the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland and Malta to retain their tapeworm controls.  It was announced that Sweden would not be allowed to retain its controls as tapeworms had been discovered in a Swedish fox that had been shot in December 2010. It was explained that the wording of the new regulation would would be subject to approval by the Parliament and the Council of the EU.

On 15th November 2011 the final version of the regulation was published in the Official Journal of the EU marking its acceptance by the Parliament and the Council of the EU.

On 1st January 2012 the new regulation took effect.

Scientists are worried

Scientists are worried about the increasing threat of Echinococcus multilocularis to human health. In December 2010 a European symposium was held in France for all scientists working in this field of research.

Click here to find out more about the 2010 symposium

In September 2011, at an international congress for game biologists there were several papers presented about tackling the tapeworm threat from a wildlife management perspective.

Click here to find out more about the 2011 congress
 

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