Objective: To understand the situation of the freely grazing and wild feces behaviors of residents in plateau mountain area of schistosomiasis endemic areas in Yunnan Province.
Methods: Two villages of Xidian and Moguang in Heqing County, Yunnan Province were selected as the study area and the questionnaire surveys were performed to the randomly selected villagers aged 6 to 65 years with the sampling ratio of 30%. Then the respondents were tested for the infection of schistosomiasis by indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA).
Results: Totally 412 residents were surveyed. In all the responds, the ratios of "captive breed", "freely grazing "unknown" and "no response" were 55.34%, 4.85%, 26.94% and 12.86% respectively; and the ratios of "no grazing", "less than 5/week" and "no less than 5/week" were 75.49%, 16.02% and 8.50% respectively; and the ratios of "no wild feces", "less than 5/week", "no less than 5/week" and "no answer" were 68.45%, 27.67%, 2.91% and 0.97% respectively.
Conclusions: Freely grazing and wild feces behaviors of residents in schistosomiasis endemic area of Heqing County are widespread, could heavily affect the control of schistosomiasis in Heqing County. The further work is to strengthen the management of human and animal feces and grazing and consolidate the results of the prevention and control of schistosomiasis and finally achieve the aim of the transmission interruption.