Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T00:18:23.447Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prevalence of Toxocara canis ova in public playgrounds in the Dublin area of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2009

P. O'Lorcain
P. O'Lorcain
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A total of nine playground sites in Dublin city and county were surveyed from which 228 samples were removed. Of these samples, 15% were positive for Toxocara canis ova and a mean egg density of 1.4 ova/100 g was calculated. Two types of playground sites were identified and that the level of toxocaral contamination was found to be greater in ‘neighbourhood playgrounds’ than in ‘adventure playgrounds’. There was no significant difference in the number of positive samples taken from sites both inside and outside these playgrounds. No evidence of Toxocara cati ova was found. Only one sample was positive for Toxascaris leonina ova. Over 50% of the T. canis ova identified were infective. The findings in this study suggest that the sample's moisture content contributes to the long term survival of infective Toxocara ova in the environment. A recovery rate of 69.8% was achieved with a modified version of the flotation method.

Type
Research Papers
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 237 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Borg, O.A. & Woodruff, A.W. (1973) Prevalence of infective ova of Toxocara species in public places. British Medical Journal 4, 470–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collins, G.H. & Moore, J. (1982) Soil survey for eggs of Toxocara species. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 76, 579–580.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duwel, D. (1984) The prevalence of Toxocara eggs in the sand in children's playgrounds in Frankfurt/M. Annals of the Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 78, 633–636.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ghadirian, E., Viens, P., Strykowski, H. & Dubreuil, F. (1976) Epidemiology of toxocariasis in the Montreal area—prevalence of Toxocara and other helminth ova in dogs and soil. Canadian Journal of Public Health 67, 495–496.Google ScholarPubMed
Gillespie, S.H., Pereira, M. & Ramsay, A. (1991) The prevalence of Toxocara canis ova in soil samples from parks and gardens in the London area. Public Health 105, 335–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glickman, L.T. & Schantz, P.M. (1981) Epidemiology and pathogenesis of zoonotic toxocariasis. Epidemiology Reviews 3, 230–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holland, C., O'Connor, P., Taylor, M.R.H., Hughes, G., Girdwood, R.W.A. & Smith, H. (1991) Families, parks, gardens and toxocariasis. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases 23, 225–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ludlum, K.E. & Platt, T.R. (1989) The relationship of park maintenance and accessibility to dogs to the presence of Toxocara spp. ova in the soil. American Journal of Public Health 79, 633–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, R., Smith, H.V., Bruce, R.G. & Girdwood, R.W.A.(1980) Studies on the incidence of Toxocara and Toxascaris spp. ova in the environment. 1. A comparison of floatation procedures for recovering Toxocara spp. ova from soil. Journal of Hygiene (Cambridge) 84, 83–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snow, K.R., Ball, S.J. & Bewick, J.A. (1987) Prevalence of Toxocara species eggs in the soil of five east London parks. Veterinary Record 120, 66–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thienpont, D., Rochette, F. & Vanparijs, O.F.J. (1979) Diagnosing helminthiasis through coprological examination. Beerse, Belgium, Janssen Research Foundation.Google Scholar
Ubelaker, J.E. & Allison, V.F. (1975) Scanning electron microscopy of the eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, A. suum, Toxocara canis and T. mystax. Journal of Parasitology 61, 802–807.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uga, S. (1993) Prevalence of Toxocara eggs and the number of faecal deposits from dogs and cats in sandpits of public parks in Japan. Journal of Helminthology 67, 78–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winkel, K.D., Saw, T.H. & Prociv, P. (1990) Risk of parasitic infections from sandpits. Medical Journal of Australia 153, 505.Google ScholarPubMed
Woodruff, A.W., Watson, J., Shikara, L., Ai Azzi, N.S.H., Ai Hadithi, T.S., Ai Adhami, S.B.H. & Woodruff, P.W.R.(1981) Toxocara ova in soil in the Mosul District, Iraq, and their relevance to public health measures in the Middle East. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, 75, 555–557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed