[Epidemiology of echinococcosis in domestic animals and man in Bulgaria]

Echinococcosis is an important agricultural and public health problem in the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Organized and purposeful control since 1960 has proved to be effective. In the investigated period from 1975 to 1979 a decreased infestation with Echinococcus granulosus of man and farm animals could be observed. Infestation degree of sheep is below 20% in flat areas, whereas in mountainous regions it is well over 50%. The infestation of the population with echinococcosis is not equally distributed. It varies between 0.7 and 5.77 in 100,000 persons in different areas. The most common sources of infection are "domestic" dogs (57.76%), followed by hunting dogs (28.58%) and herding dogs (13.56%).