ABSTRACT
Background: As a neglected cross-species parasitic disease transmitted between canines and livestock, echinococcosis remains a global public health concern with a heavy disease burden. In China, especially in the epidemic pastoral communities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the harsh climate, low socio-economic status, poor overall hygiene, and remote and insufficient access to all owned dogs exacerbate the difficulty in implementing the ambitious control programme for echinococcosis. New methods and tools are urgently needed to increase the deworming coverage and frequency, promote real-time scientific surveillance, and prevent transmission of echinococcosis. Methods: We propose the remote management system (RMS) based on IoT as a novel tool to control smart deworming devices to deliver efficient PZQ baits to dogs regularly and automatically and also as a smart digital management platform to monitor, analyse, and display the epidemic trends of echinococcosis dynamically, in real time. The RMS is an excellent alternative to existing manual deworming methods and management for surveillance of echinococcosis.Results: The smart collars are fully capable of anti-collision, waterproof, and cold-proof performance, and the battery’s energy is sufficient. The RMS can accurately analyse the monitoring data and parameters including positive rates of canine faeces, and the prevalence of echinococcosis in the general population livestock, and children. The data of dogs deworming and surveillance for echinococcosis is able to be controlled using RMS and has expanded gradually in townships to the whole Hezuo region. A total of 48 administrators (3, 3, 8, 11, 23 at the provincial, municipal, county, township, village levels, respectively) participated in the questionnaire survey, with 93.8% of its overall satisfaction rate.Conclusion: The existing difficulties and challenges in the way of prevention and control for echinococcosis can partially be resolved using the innovative, IoT-based technologies and tools. The proposed RMS to advance the upgrade of existing manual prevention and control models for echinococcosis, especially in the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as social distance and community blockade continue.