This disease is caused by the larvae of Taenia polycephala parasitizing the brains of sheep and cattle, so it is also called cerebral echinococcosis and can also infect people. The disease is distributed worldwide. It has been reported in all parts of China, and there are many pastoral areas in Northeast and Northwest China, which are often endemic. Agricultural areas are mostly sporadic, or a sheep farm and flock occur in a small area, which is mostly related to raising dogs. The disease has no obvious seasonality, and can occur all the year round. Sheep under two years old occur more often. The adult paedoptera polycephala parasitizes in the small intestine of carnivores such as dogs and wolves, and is infected with feces discharged to mature pregnant nodes or eggs contaminated sheep's forage or drinking water. In the small intestine, the hexagamous larva burrows into the blood vessels of intestinal mucosa, flows into the sheep brain and spinal cord with the blood flow, and develops into polycephalic larva after 2~3 months. The encephalocele is vesicular, and peas are as big as eggs, and the largest can reach more than 20 cm. The capsule wall is thin and white and translucent, and the capsule is filled with colorless capsule fluid and 150~200 embedded cephalic segments. The dog was infected when it swallowed the sheep's brain containing polycephalic cysts, and developed into an adult in the small intestine after 1~2 months.

At the beginning of sheep disease, the body temperature rises, the breathing and heartbeat speed up, and it shows nervous symptoms such as intense excitement, encephalitis and meningitis, and even acute death. In the later stage, the sick sheep tend their heads to the parasitic side of cerebral polycephalum and move in circles to the affected side, so the disease is often called "gyration". When the worm parasitizes in the front of the brain, the head of the sick sheep hangs down, rushes forward or does not move. When parasitic on the back of the brain, the head is held high or leaned back, making backward movement or sitting on the ground and unable to stand. Parasitic on the brain and spinal cord will cause paralysis of the hindquarters. Parasitic on the surface of the brain leads to thinning and softening of the skull, local uplift, pain on palpation and dullness on percussion. The vision of sick animals is reduced or even blind. When dissecting the diseased sheep's brain, at the early stage, there were insect tracks, bleeding, encephalitis and meningitis caused by the migration of hexagamous cercariae, and at the later stage, there were various sizes and numbers of cerebral polycephalic cercariae and local tissues around the cerebral spinal cord anemia and atrophy. To prevent sheep cerebral polycephalosis, we should strengthen the management of dogs, especially sheepdogs, do regular preventive deworming and treat dog feces harmlessly. To expel Taenia polycephala in the small intestine of dogs, praziquantel can be taken orally at a dose of 5~ 10 mg per kilogram of body weight, 1 time; Dog manure discharged within 3 days after anthelmintic should be burned or buried intensively to prevent insect fragments and eggs from spreading and polluting sheep forage, feed and drinking water. Strengthen health inspection, and don't feed dogs with the brains and spinal cords of sheep, cattle and other animals containing cerebral polycephala. At present, there is no specific medicine for treating cerebral polycephalosis. The metacercaria parasitized on the forebrain surface of the head can be removed by circular saw. Drug treatment can be praziquantel, 50 mg per kilogram of body weight, once a day/kloc-0, for 5 days; Or 70 mg per kilogram of body weight, once a day/kloc-0, for 3 days. You can also use albendazole, 30 mg per kilogram of body weight, once a day/kloc-0, for 3 days. It is reported that the method and drug "Naochongjing" developed by Inner Mongolia Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry has a good curative effect.