Objective: To evaluate the effects and influencing factors of mass chemotherapy in the late stage of soil-borne nematodiasis control so as to provide the evidence for the development of control programs.
Methods: Six villages were divided into three groups: the target chemotherapy, the selective chemotherapy and the control. By observation in three consecutive years, the indexes, mass infection rates, infection degrees and re-infections of soil-borne nematodes, were compared among the 3 groups. The influencing factors were also analyzed.
Results: The population infection rates of soil- borne nematodes decreased by 85.94%, 43.10% and 20.87%, respectively, in the three groups after chemotherapy compared with those before the intervention. A higher hookworm infection rate appeared and the chemotherapy effect was impacted in the target chemotherapy group, as some key population applied fresh human waste in vegetable plots. The re-infection rate was 16.65 times of the new infection rate.
Conclusions: Chemotherapy is still useful in the late stage of soil-borne nematode control. It is more important to enhance management of using manure and health education on focus population.