[Leish-l] dog culling strategy

[Carlos Costa]

Dear all,

Before his death in 1997, the great English/Brazilian scientist Philip
Marsden and I we were discussing the origins of the dog culling strategy for
the control of visceral leishmaniasis. He told me some aspects of its roots.

Unfortunately, I had not taken notes of his words; because of it, I thought
that I could share my memories with the Leish-L community in order to find
out more about the subject and to check and better fit my informations.

Philip told me that the Chinese started their dog culling strategy in the
early 50s and that Alencar, a distinct Brazilian scientist working on
kala-azar visited Europe and brought the idea of the program to Brazil.
There, he had met the Italian scientist Dr. Pampiglione (who worked with
Manson-Bahr). Pampiglione, somehow knew about what was happenning in China
and described to Alencar the success of the anti-kala-azar operations. Back
to Brazil, he introduced the strategy in Ceará State. In the first Brazilian
urban epidemic, in the beginning of the 80s, the strategy was adopted by the
Ministry of Health for the whole country.

A rapid visit to the literature helped only a bit to reconstruct the
history. Chinese papers published in the 80s in fact mentioned the dog
culling strategy in the country and in cities like Beijing, aside
(apparently massive) DDT spraying in the 50s; they said that this combined
approach helped to control both the zoonotic and anthroponotic transmission,
but it was not clear which one contributed the most. The review of Adler in
1964 does not mention the subject.

To complete the story, I know there is a report of a meeting sponsored by
the Pan-American Health Organization in the 80s that outlines the Brazilian
culling operations. I took a read on it years ago, by I could not find this
important document anymore.

I hope that some of you might know more about the subject and help to
reconstruct its history, which is the most important present action taken by
a government for preventing the transmission of the disease worldwide.

Kind regards,

Carlos.


-- 
Carlos H. N. Costa
Instituto de Doenças Tropicais Natan Portella
Universidade Federal do Piauí
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