@inproceedings{8748482,
  abstract     = {{Background: Although elimination of T. solium is achievable using mass drug administration programmes, more sustainable strategies to control the disease are urgently needed. As such, 100-m ring treatments have been shown effective in Peru, though results might not be directly generalizable to sub-Saharan settings. Pig movements play a vital role in the transmission and consequently the success of ring treatment programmes towards T. solium.

Objectives: Our study aimed to explore roaming patterns of pigs in T. solium endemic communities in Zambia, particularly focusing on the time spent and the number of recurrences outside different circles around the pigs’ household.

Material and methods: Global Positioning System (GPS) technology was used to track 48 free roaming pigs in two rural neighbourhoods in Eastern Province of Zambia. Tracking of pigs took place during April 2019 (end of the rainy season) and October 2019 (end of the dry season). The number of revisitations and the time spent outside a ring around the household of the pig were calculated for circles of different radii (50m, 100m, and 250m) around the coordinate of the pigs’ household.

Results: The tracking time of 43 pigs in the final analysis set ranged between 44 and 95 hours. Pigs spent a median of 13% of the tracked time outside the 100-m radius, ranging between pigs from 0% to 91%. The median number of visits per day outside this ring was 6. Overall, 25 pigs (58%) went at least once outside the 250-m ring. The odds of traveling outside the 250-m radius was estimated to be 4 (95% CI 1-16) times higher in the dry season compared to the rainy season.

Conclusion: The vast majority of pigs spent most of their time within a 100-m circle around their household, supporting the use of 100-m ring treatments. Nevertheless, further studies are required to investigate the importance of the time spent outside the 100-m ring, as well as the open defecation behaviour of people.}},
  author       = {{Van Damme, Inge and Mwape, Kabemba E. and Trevisan, Chiara and Coudenys, Fien and Vaernewyck, Victor and Dorny, Pierre and O'Neal, Seth E. and Gabriël, Sarah}},
  booktitle    = {{Cystinet Conference 2021, Abstracts}},
  keywords     = {{Taeniosis,Cysticercosis,Control,GPS,Movement,Sus scrofa,Sub-Saharan Africa,Zambia,Ring treatment}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Ghent}},
  pages        = {{30--30}},
  title        = {{GPS tracking of free-range pigs in rural communities in Zambia : an explorative  study towards future ring treatment strategies for Taenia solium}},
  url          = {{http://www.cystinet.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Cystinet_AbstractBook_28May2021.pdf}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}