Craig Duggan

Meredydd Jones, an 86-year-old sheep farmer from Trecastle, was diagnosed with hydatid disease after suffering severe pain in 2016. The tapeworm infection caused cysts on both lungs, which were surgically removed in 2018 and 2019, while a liver cyst remains. Public Health Wales says the disease can pass from infected sheep and livestock to dogs and then humans, with symptoms sometimes taking decades to appear. Researchers at Aberystwyth University are investigating whether the disease is re-emerging in mid Wales by analyzing samples and tracking sheepdog movements.

Eighty-six-year-old Trecastle sheep farmer Meredydd Jones describes being diagnosed with hydatid disease after years of unknowingly living with tapeworm cysts in his lungs. He underwent operations in 2018 and 2019 and still has a liver cyst that does not trouble him. Public Health Wales says the parasite remains a significant concern in mid Wales, where it can spread from infected sheep and livestock tissue to dogs and then to humans, with symptoms sometimes taking decades to appear. Aberystwyth University researchers are studying infection levels and transmission by analysing faecal samples and tracking sheepdog movements.