Smart deworming collar: A novel tool for reducing Echinococcus infection in dogs

Echinococcosis is a serious zoonotic parasitic disease transmitted from canines to humans and livestock. Periodic deworming is recommended by the WHO/OIE as a highly effective measure against echinococcosis. However, manual deworming involves significant challenges, particularly in remote areas with scarce resources. The insufficient awareness delivering praziquantel (PZQ) baits for dogs leads to low compliance rate. The aim of this study was therefore to develop a novel smart collar for dogs to address these challenges. We developed a smart Internet of Things (IoT)-based deworming collar which can deliver PZQ baits for dogs automatically, regularly, quantitatively with predominant characteristics of being waterproof, anti-collision, cold-proof and long life battery. Its performance was tested in two remote locations on the Tibetan Plateau. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to evaluate the compliance of the dog owners. Further, a randomized controlled study was performed to evaluate the difference between smart-collar deworming and manual deworming. The collar's effectiveness was further assessed on the basis of Generalized Estimation Equations (GEE). The testing and evaluation was done for 10 smart deworming collars in factory laboratory, 18 collars attached for 18 dogs in Seni district, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, and 523 collars attached for 523 dogs in Hezuo city, Gansu province, China. The anti-collision, waterproof, and coldproof proportion of the smart collars were 100.0%, 99.5%, and 100.0%, respectively. When compared to manual deworming, the dogs' risk of infection with Echinococcus on smart-collar deworming is down to 0.182 times (95% CI: 0.049, 0.684) in Seni district and 0.355 (95%CI: 0.178, 0.706) in Hezuo city, the smart collar has a significant protective effect. The owners' overall compliance rate to attach the smart collars for their dogs was 89%. The smart deworming collar could effectively reduce the dogs' risk of infection with Echinococcus in dogs, significantly increase the deworming frequency and coverage and rapidly remove worm biomass in dogs. Thus, it may be a promising alternative to manual deworming, particularly in remote areas on the Tibetan Plateau.