Food- and vector-borne parasitic zoonoses: global burden and impacts

Around 25% of the global population suffer from one or more parasitic infections, of which food and vector-borne parasitic zoonotic diseases are the major concern. Additionally, in recent years, zoonoses and communicable diseases common to man and animals have gained increasing attention worldwide. Great changes in the climatic conditions, cropping pattern, demography and food habits, increasing international travels, marketing and trades, deforestation and urbanization play vital roles in the emergence and re-emergence of parasitic zoonoses. Although, underestimated, however, collected burden of food and vector-borne parasitic diseases is attributed to ~60 million Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Of the 20 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) listed by World Health Organization (WHO) and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13 diseases are of parasitic origin. Besides, there are about 200 zoonotic diseases where WHO enlisted eight diseases as Neglected Zoonotic Diseases (NZDs) in the year 2013, of them four diseases namely cysticercosis, hydatidosis, leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis are caused by the parasite. In this review, we discussed global burden and impacts of food and vector-borne zoonotic parasitic diseases.