Cystic Echinococcosis among Livestock in Arabia Peninsula: A Systemic Review and Meta-analysis

Cystic echinococcosis/cystic hydatidosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the larval stages of taeniid cestodes of the genus Echinococcus. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of echinococcosis among the livestock in Arabia Peninsula countries including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate (UAE), Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Literature searches were performed on PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Google scholar for English language articles from June 2000 to June 2021. The prevalence of cystic echinococcosis was estimated using the random effects meta-analysis. Of the 4477 records identified in the electronic databases, 713 articles met eligibility criteria. Out of 713, 19 studies addressed a total number of 1132538 individuals from the whole livestock were subjected to meta-analysis. The results revealed that, the pooled prevalence of cystic echinococcosis in livestock at Arabia peninsula countries was 13.4% (95% CI 10.8 –16.0) with high level of heterogeneity (I2 = 100%, P < 0.001). Based on countries, subgroup meta-analysis demonstrated that, the pooled prevalence rates were 10.5 %( 95% Cl 6.9-14), 9.3% (95% Cl 5.-13.5) and 34.1% (95% Cl 9.9-58.1) in S. Arabia, Yemen and Oman respectively. No publications on prevalence of cystic echinococcosis in livestock in UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar were found. The Cattle had the highest prevalence rate 74.1(95% Cl, 0 -15-1.096) of infection; while, goats had the lowest prevalence rate 4.7% (95% Cl, 4.2-13.6). Significant differences have been observed (P < 0.001) among different animals' species. In the term of diagnostic tool, the prevalence rates were 9.7% (95% Cl: 6.9-12.4), 14.7% (95%Cl: 13.5.-16.0) and 79.0% (95% Cl: 74.084.0) for post mortem inspection, serological and Haemagglutination & Molecular assays respectively. Significant differences were observed (P < 0.001) among prevalence rates of different diagnostic techniques used. In conclusion, the results showed that, cystic echinococcosis is prevalent among livestock in Arabia Peninsula countries. Given to the importance of cystic echinococcosis on health of domestic animals industry, the results of this study could be valuable in developing strategies for prevention and control of the cystic echinococcosis in livestock.