Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Treatment and behavior changes cut Guinea worm in dogs in Chad
By Dupper, Amy C et al.·Published in PLoS neglected tropical diseases·2026·The Ohio State University, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Concurrent therapeutic and behavioral interventions are associated with a reduced number of emerging Dracunculus medinensis worms in dogs in Chad.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in Chad were found to have a serious parasitic infection called Guinea worm disease, caused by Dracunculus medinensis. To help reduce the number of infections, researchers tested a medication called flubendazole along with a method called proactive tethering, which involves keeping dogs tied up to prevent them from roaming. Over 33 months, they found that using both treatments together led to an 83% reduction in infections, while flubendazole alone reduced infections by 63%. This suggests that combining these two approaches could be effective in controlling this disease in dogs.
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Abstract
Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm; GW) is a parasitic nematode that causes dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease; GWD). The annual incidence of GWD in humans has been reduced by over 99.9% globally since the 1980s thanks to the implementation of complementary interventions. Dogs are now the primary hosts of GW and impede eradication efforts. The antihelmenthic drug, flubendazole (FLBZ), was suggested as a possible therapeutic intervention after it was found to be partially effective at reducing fertility of D. medinensis in experimentally infected ferrets. A 2019 clinical trial of FLBZ in Chad found no statistically significant difference in GW infections between treated and control dogs, but longer term effects may be observed if FLBZ reduced fertility of D. medinensis. This study leveraged surveillance data from the National Guinea Worm Eradication Program of the monthly count of D. medinensis worms in dogs between January 1, 2019, and September 30, 2021, for 56 villages to examine whether FLBZ would have an observable effect over 33 months and in the presence of another intervention, proactive tethering. We fit hypothesis-informed models of the combined interventions using negative binomial generalized linear mixed models. We averaged the top models together and predicted the number of D. medinensis infections per month for an average village. Based on the model predictions, we observed a clear delineation of effects between March and August 2021, approximately one year after most villages initiated proactive tethering and approximately two years after a few villages initiated FLBZ treatment. During this period, the predicted number of dog infections were reduced by 83% (95% CI, 76% to 88%) when using FLBZ and proactive tethering concurrently, by 63% when using FLBZ alone (95% CI: 44% to 75%), and by 55% when using proactive tethering alone (95% CI: 52% to 58%) compared to baseline control methods. When used together, proactive tethering and FLBZ may be important tools in reducing the village-level D. medinensis burden in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41628272/