Surveillance of Echinococcus tapeworm in coyotes and domestic dogs in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: The Echinococcus species, including E. multilocularis and E. canadensis, are tapeworms that primarily infect canids such as dogs, foxes and coyotes, but which can also infect humans.In humans, E. multilocularis can cause alveolar echinococcosis; a serious condition that mimics metastatic malignancy and has a poor prognosis.It is known that coyotes in rural Manitoba are infected with Echinococcus species, but it is not known if coyotes in peri-urban areas are also infected.Objectives: To document and map Echinococcus species in wild canids and domestic dogs in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada).Methods: There were 169 fecal samples collected between April 18 and June 1, 2018.These included 44 samples of domestic dog feces, 122 of coyote scat, one of fox scat and two of coyote colonic tissue specimens.Samples were frozen (-80°C) for at least 72 hours to inactivate tapeworm ova.Polymerase chain reaction analyses of E. multilocularis and E. canadensis were performed on all frozen samples.Results: Echinococcus multilocularis-positive samples were detected in nine (10.6%) of 85 locations, with one positive sample in a suburban Winnipeg dog park and two positive samples in a popular provincial park.No dog samples were positive for E. multilocularis; one sample was positive for E. canadensis.In contrast, nine coyote samples (7.3%) were positive for E. multilocularis and eight samples (6.5%) were positive for E. canadensis.The one fox sample was positive for each.Overall, six samples (3.6%) were positive for both infections.Conclusion: This is the first confirmation of the presence of E. multilocularis in coyote feces in the metropolitan area of Winnipeg, Manitoba.In light of the risk this could pose to domestic dogs and human health, periodic surveillance that maps the distribution of this tapeworm could inform the need for additional public health actions.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".