Vet World   Vol.16   April-2023  Article-12

Review Article

Veterinary World, 16(4): 752-765

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.752-765

Emergence of zoonotic Brugia pahangi parasite in Thailand

Adisak Bhumiratana1,2, Prapa Nunthawarasilp3, Apiradee Intarapuk4, Suntorn Pimnon5, and Wanapa Ritthison6
1. Thammasat University Research Unit in One Health and EcoHealth, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
2. Faculty of Public Health, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani 12121, Thailand.
3. Faculty of Public Health, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand.
4. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mahanakorn University of Technology, Bangkok 10530, Thailand.
5. Faculty of Public Health, Bangkokthonburi University, Bangkok 10170, Thailand.
6. Office of Disease Prevention and Control, Region 6 Chonburi, Thailand.

Background and Aim: Zoonotic Brugia pahangi parasite infections in humans have emerged over two decades in Southeast Asia (SEA), including Malaysia and Thailand. The species is commonly found in domestic cats and dogs as the natural reservoir hosts. The sporadic transmission pattern of B. pahangi zoonosis causes childhood infections in Thailand and adulthood infections in Malaysia. It is crucial to understand the vulnerability in how zoonotic B. pahangi parasite is transmitted to susceptible persons in receptive settings and the exposure to the infection under impoverished environment to which the human-vector-animal interactions are related. This acquisition of knowledge will help multiple health science professions to apply One Health approach to strengthening the capacity in diagnosis and surveillance, and hence detecting and monitoring the “lingering” zoonotic B. pahangi infections present in vulnerable populations in Thailand and elsewhere in SEA. In this review article, the authors focused on articulating the concepts of plantation-related zoonotic B. pahangi filariasis by updating current knowledge of B. pahangi life cycle, vector’s life cycle and current state of research on the epidemiology and ecology of B. pahangi zoonosis.

Keywords: Brugia pahangi, plantation-related zoonotic Brugia pahangi filariasis, sporadic transmission pattern, zoonosis.

How to cite this article: Bhumiratana A, Nunthawarasilp P, Intarapuk A, Pimnon S, and Ritthison W (2023) Emergence of zoonotic

Received: 20-12-2022  Accepted: 09-03-2023     Published online: 14-04-2023

Corresponding author:    E-mail: adisak.b@fph.tu.ac.th

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.752-765

Copyright: Bhumiratana, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.