Recent research:
Across multiple studies in Ecuador and the Andean region, the author team investigates the interplay between livestock—particularly guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus)—and public health, emphasizing zoonotic pathogens, environmental exposure, and One Health strategies. The work demonstrates high parasitism and pathogen exposure in livestock guinea pigs, including enteric protozoa, helminths, Leptospira shedding, and Toxoplasma gondii exposure, with implications for food security and household transmission. Complementary work surveys seroprevalence of Influenza A, Brucella spp., Coxiella burnetii, T. gondii, and Neospora caninum in animals (guinea pigs and dogs) and discovers notable environmental risk and regional exposure patterns. Collectively, the studies identify livestock guinea pigs and free-roaming dogs as potential reservoirs or sentinels, advocate One Health–oriented surveillance, public education, animal management, and targeted guidelines to reduce occupational exposure and zoonotic risk in rural Andean communities and broader Latin American contexts. Methods span cross-sectional prevalence studies, serosurveys using ELISA, MAT, and qPCR on large urban-rural samples, with multivariate analyses linking management practices to parasitism and environmental exposure. Impact centers on informing policy, surveillance, and integrated health approaches to safeguard food security, livestock productivity, and human health in the region.