Fascioliasis in Jamaica: epidemiologic and economic aspects of a snail-borne parasitic zoonosis.

Fasciola hepatica, the etiologic agent of fascioliasis in the Caribbean region, occurs throughout the major islands of the Greater Antilles and in foci on two islands (Martinique and Saint Lucia) of the Lesser Antilles. According to a study conducted by the Pan American Health Organization (I), fascioliasis is recognized as causing prodigious losses to the food animal industries of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. The extent of these losses may be partially quantified by examining the prevalence of bovine liver condemnations, an indicator of morbidity produced by liver-fluke infestation. In this regard, Dobsinsky (2) found liver condemnation rates ranging from 10.7 to 32.9 per cent in Cuba in 1968; Barnish et al. (3) found rates ranging from 9.8 to 23 per cent on Saint Lucia in 1978; and Gentilini et al. (4) found 60 per