Dr. Francisco Pozo-Martin, Immunisation/STIKO Unit, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute.

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections cause a significant level of morbidity in human populations, particularly in LMIC. In 2019, STH infections were estimated to have led to a loss of 1.9 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (1). Similarly, STH infections are an important source of morbidity in farmed animals, particularly in organic farming environments. Focusing on pig farm production, STH infections can affect pig bodyweight gain, feed conversion ratio and meat quality (2) and are associated with economic losses (2,3). The impact of STH on vaccination success (4) and coinfections (5) also causes economic losses for farmers (6). Hence, STH infection elimination and control policies in both human and animal farm populations are extremely important, not only because of their impact on reducing morbidity but also because of their associated economic benefits. Eliminating morbidity and mortality from schistosomiasis and STH infection in the human population in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe by 2030, for instance, could increase economic productivity by 5.1 million US$ PPP (purchasing power parity) in 2040 (7). Similarly, controlling STH infections in pig farms can lead to economic benefits. This is particularly the case with organic pig farms, where pigs are exposed to helminths via contaminated soil/ bedding. Drawing on our previous experience with the application of high quality costing methodologies to the evaluation of health and public health interventions (8-10), in this project we aim to, first, develop and implement a high quality standardized costing tool to estimate the costs of government-led school deworming programs in LMIC (DR1) and, second, to develop a high quality standardized cost-benefit tool to estimate the costs and production losses associated with STH infection and other disease control strategies in conventional and organic swine farms with different STH infection control approaches in Germany (DR2).

References:
1) Montresor et al. 2022, doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010575; 2) Vismarra et al. 2023, doi: 10.1016/j.vprsr.2022.100828; 3) Martínez-Pérez et al. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2017.10.009; 4) Steenhard et al. 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.05.075; 5) Oba et al. 2023b, doi: 10.1007/s00436-023- 07797-4; 6) Oba et al. 2023a, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1198461; 7) The Economist Intelligence Unit. London 2020. 8) Pozo-Martin et al. 2021, doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-039594; 9) Weishaar et al. 2024. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1197729; 10) Ibrahim et al. 2015, doi: 10.1186/s12913-015-0831-2; 11) Drummond et al. 2015, Oxford University Press, ISBN (Print) 9780199665884.