**1. Introduction**

*Taenia solium taeniasis/cysticercosis* is an important food-borne zoonosis which is transmitted between humans and pigs all over the world [1, 2]. Taeniasis typically causes several digestive problems in humans, whereas cysticercosis is a very serious disease in both humans and pigs [3]. Porcine cysticercosis primarily parasitizes muscle tissues and visceral organs throughout the body of pig resulting in poor quality of pork. However, human cysticercosis may take several pathological forms such as neurocysticercosis (NCC), ocular cysticercosis (OCC), subcutaneous muscle cysticercosis, oral cavity cysticercosis, visceral cysticercosis, and others [3–5]. Human NCC is mainly responsible for seizures, high intracranial pressure, and psychiatric disorders, and it is considered to be one of the major disease burdens in people in many parts of the world [6].

*Theridion solium* taeniasis/cysticercosis is a severe helminth infection common in humans and domestic pigs raised in close proximity to human settlements, particularly those in warm and mild climates in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and China [7–9]. In some endemic areas of *T. solium*, cysticercosis is a leading cause of epileptic seizures in humans [10, 11], while NCC has been noticed as a health burden even in non-endemic regions such as America and Europe owing to frequent traveling and immigration [2, 12]. Approximately 50 million people worldwide suffer from NCC caused by *T. solium* with more than 50,000 deaths per year [13], and studies have indicated a higher prevalence of cysticercosis and its burden than has been recognized by the public health service systems [14, 15].

As the life cycle of *T. solium* involves humans and pigs (**Figure 1**), humans acquire tapeworm infection by consuming raw or under-cooked pork containing cysticerci [16]. Following ingestion, the larval tapeworm grows into an adult worm within approximately 2 months in the human small intestine [16]. Humans are the only natural definitive hosts who harbor the adult form of *T. solium* in their small intestines [8]. Eggs or the most distal worm segments (proglottids) containing mature eggs are released as they frequently detach from the worm and then are passed out into the environment with human feces [8, 17]. These eggs can infect the same (autoinfection) or other humans through fecal-oral transmission from direct contact with tapeworm carriers or consumption of water or food contaminated with human feces [6, 16, 18]. Pigs acquire infection through consumption of human feces containing infectious eggs (gravid proglottids) as well as contaminated food, water, and soil [8]. Humans and pigs could both serve as intermediate hosts, and the embryo (oncosphere) is released after ingestion and migrates through the intestinal mucosa. Later, the larval stages (cysticerci) lead to systemic infection in brain, eyes, subcutaneous tissues, and viscera of the host *via* blood circulatory system [8].

Domestication of wild boars (*Sus scrofa*) began 9000 years ago, and pig rearing has been a common practice in Asian countries for more than 2500 years [19]. Cysticercosis has long been a worldwide zoonosis transmitted between pigs and humans [3]. In China, the prevalence of *T. solium* taeniasis/cysticercosis has been significantly reduced in the recent decades as a result of ongoing health education and promotion as well as sanitary improvements [3, 20, 21]. There have been noticeably dramatic changes in pig-rearing methods and socio-ecological factors as well in China [22, 23]. In this chapter, we reviewed the epidemiology, traditional measures, and ecological determinants that outstandingly contributed to the decline of *T. solium* taeniasis/cysticercosis in China.
