Table 9.

Different source attribution approaches for Echinococcus spp

Source attribution approach	Comments
Epidemiological studies	Limited because of the long incubation period of the disease
Subtyping	Several studies have genotyped E. granulosus s.l. in livestock and human hosts; source attribution to reservoirs for E. multilocularis is at present not possible to perform as the various known reservoirs are not characterised by different subtypes
Comparative risk assessment	Limited by a lack of occurrence data, particularly on contamination of foodstuffs with Echinococcus eggs
Expert knowledge elicitation	May appear to be the most feasible approach, but results indicate wide uncertainty