Impact of dogs with deltamethrin-impregnated collars on prevalence of visceral leishmaniasis

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a vector borne zoonosis which is classified as a neglected tropical disease. Among the three most common forms of the disease, Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is the most threatening to human health, causing 20,000 to 30,000 deaths worldwide each year. Areas where VL is mostly endemic have unprotected dogs in community and houses. The ''presence of dogs usually increases VL risk for humans since dogs are the principal reservoir host for the parasite of the disease. Based on this fact, most earlier studies consider culling dogs as a control measure for the spread of VL. A more recent control measure has been the use of deltamethrin-impregnated dog collars (DIDCs) to protect both humans and dogs by putting DIDCs on dogs neck. The presence of dogs helps to grow the sandfly population faster by offering a more suitable blood-meal source. On the other hand, the presence of DIDCs on dogs helps to reduce sandfly population by the lethality of deltamethrin insecticide. This study brings an ecological perspective to this public health concern, aiming to understand the impact of an additional host (here, protected dogs) on disease risk to a primary host (here, humans). To answer this question, we compare two different settings: a community without dogs, and a community with dogs protected with DIDC. Our analysis shows the presence of protected dogs can reduce VL infection risk in humans. However, this disease risk reduction depends on dogs’ tolerance for sandfly bites.