Meredydd Jones, an 86-year-old farmer from Trecastle in Wales, United Kingdom, was diagnosed with hydatid disease, a condition that poses a particular risk to sheep farmers. He believes he lived for years with slow-growing cysts in his lungs before undergoing two operations to remove them, in 2018 and 2019.
Public Health Wales said hydatid disease, while uncommon, is an important public health problem because of its potentially serious consequences. The tapeworm that causes the illness is considered endemic in mid Wales because of how common sheep farming is in the area.
The night he went to hospital
Jones recalled the night in May 2016 when he was admitted to hospital. He had planned to go out for dinner with his wife, Eileen, but stayed home because he felt unwell. He said he had not been able to control the pain, and that it was more intense than anything he had felt before.
He said that around midnight they had to call an ambulance, and he was taken to Nevill Hall Hospital, where whatever he was given took the pain away. He said he had never felt pain like it before.
Jones was hospitalized for 10 days, and he said doctors immediately suspected hydatid cysts. He recalled that there was a lot of the disease in the area at the time, and remembered the Ministry of Agriculture administering antiparasitic treatments to dogs on local farms. He said the fact that staff may have recognized him as a former sheep farmer could have played a role, noting that the area, Breconshire in general, had a great deal of experience with hydatid cysts and numerous cases among local people.
He was later referred to what he called the leading expert on hydatid cysts in London, where he underwent two operations, in 2018 and 2019, to remove one cyst from each lung. He said he swapped two cysts for two scars on his ribs, adding that he still has a cyst in his liver that surgeons decided not to remove.
How the disease spreads
Dr Chris Williams, a consultant epidemiologist at Public Health Wales, said hydatid disease is caused by a tapeworm. He explained that the tapeworm is typically transmitted between farm animals such as sheep and cows and dogs, with dogs excreting the eggs. He said that if humans ingest the eggs, usually from dogs, the eggs can form cysts inside the body that cause swelling and pain and require surgical treatment. He added that symptoms can take 10 to 20 years to appear, which is why the problem needs to be tackled as soon as it is detected in dogs and carcasses, rather than waiting for human cases to occur.
The disease can pass from dogs to humans, and public health campaigns around 25 years ago stressed the importance of regular antiparasitic treatment and hand hygiene after handling animals. Researchers say there is recent evidence that hydatid disease is reappearing in sheep and dogs.
New research in mid Wales
Dr Gwenllian Rees, of Aberystwyth University's School of Veterinary Science, is overseeing research examining interactions between humans and dogs, along with analysis of fecal samples. She said it was important to understand the current levels of the disease in mid Wales, the risks to farmers, and how the disease is or is not being transmitted in Wales at present.
Keira Washtell, a PhD researcher on the Aberystwyth University project, said tracking devices fitted to dog collars will help researchers understand how the animals move across the land. She said the devices will emit a signal showing exactly where a dog is, how it has moved across fields, whether it is entering other farms, and whether it is potentially moving into areas with other farm dogs. She said this would help researchers understand how the disease spreads and how tapeworms move across the territory, since a dog has to ingest the cysts, meaning there will be infected tissue from a dead or fallen sheep or ram involved. She said the hope is that tracking the dogs' movements will provide clues as to whether that has actually happened.
