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      Seasonal variation in the prevalence of Toxocara eggs on children’s playgrounds in the city of Hanover, Germany

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          Abstract

          Background

          Roundworms of the genus Toxocara are worldwide distributed zoonotic parasites of carnivores. Based on case numbers and the potential impact on human health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) categorised toxocarosis as one of the most important neglected parasitic diseases. As contact with contaminated soil, e.g. in sandpits, is considered the primary transmission route, data on playground contamination are needed to assess infection risk for children. Here, playground contamination rates and their seasonal variation in the city of Hanover, Germany, were investigated.

          Methods

          Sand samples were collected monthly over a 12-month period on 46 playgrounds in the city of Hanover, Germany. In total, 1,362 samples were examined for Toxocara eggs and analysed statistically for seasonal influences on potential infection risk.

          Results

          Contamination rates ranged from 6.5% (3/46) Toxocara positive sandpits in September to 41.3% (19/46) in February, while contamination with infective embryonated eggs varied between 2.2% (1/46) and 23.9% (11/46). Compared to September, the month with the lowest contamination rate, significantly more sandpits were positive for Toxocara eggs from January to August and in October, while the prevalence of infective Toxocara eggs was significantly increased only in January and February. Regarding egg numbers, significantly higher total counts were observed in October and from December to June, while infective egg counts were significantly increased only in January, February and April.

          Conclusions

          Compared to data from 1985, contamination rates have dropped from 55.8% to an average of 23.2% in 2011. Even though the observed egg numbers indicate a moderate to low general infection risk, the potential risk to single individuals should not be underestimated, as highly contaminated spots may occur infrequently and independent of season.

          Electronic supplementary material

          The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-017-2193-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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          Most cited references22

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          Results of parasitological examinations of faecal samples from cats and dogs in Germany between 2003 and 2010.

          In a retrospective study, the results of parasitological examinations of faecal samples from 8,560 cats and 24,677 dogs between January 2003 and December 2010 in Germany were analysed. 30.4 % of the examined dogs and 22.8 % of the cats were infected with endoparasites. The examination of the faecal samples from dogs revealed stages of Giardia spp. (18.6 %), Toxocara canis (6.1 %), Toxascaris leonina (0.6 %), Ancylostomatidae (2.2 %), Trichuris vulpis (1.2 %), Capillaria spp. (1.3 %), Crenosoma vulpis (0.4 %), Angiostrongylus vasorum (0.5 %), Taeniidae (0.4 %), Dipylidiidae ( 3 up to 6 months of age showed significantly higher infection rates with Giardia spp. (37.5 % and 38.2 %, respectively), Toxocara canis (12.0 % and 12.4 %, respectively), Toxascaris leonina (1.1 % and 1.6 %, respectively), Isospora spp. (23.4 % and 11.8 %, respectively), I. ohioensis-complex (15.6 % and 7.2 %, respectively) and I. canis (11.8 % and 5.2 %, respectively) compared to older dogs. In faecal samples from cats, stages of Giardia spp. (12.6 %), Toxocara cati (4.7 %), Toxascaris leonina (0.1 %), Ancylostoma tubaeforme (0.2 %), Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (0.5 %), Capillaria spp. (1.0 %), Taeniidae (0.6 %), Dipylidium caninum ( 3 up to 6 months of age showed significantly higher infection rates with Giardia spp. (19.5 % and 24.0 %, respectively), T. cati (8.1 % and 6.9 %, respectively), Isospora spp. (12.8 % and 8.6 %, respectively), I. felis (10.0 % and 5.9%, respectively) and I. rivolta (4.6 % and 2.9%, respectively) compared to older cats.
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            Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4

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              Epidemiology and pathogenesis of zoonotic toxocariasis.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                annika_kleine@web.de
                andrea.springer@tiho-hannover.de
                christina.strube@tiho-hannover.de
                Journal
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasit Vectors
                Parasites & Vectors
                BioMed Central (London )
                1756-3305
                19 May 2017
                19 May 2017
                2017
                : 10
                : 248
                Affiliations
                ISNI 0000 0001 0126 6191, GRID grid.412970.9, Institute for Parasitology, Centre for Infection Medicine, , University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, ; Buenteweg 17, 30559 Hanover, Germany
                Article
                2193
                10.1186/s13071-017-2193-6
                5437484
                28526064
                94d9cf99-8677-4780-971a-1d6ff65f210b
                © The Author(s). 2017

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 8 March 2017
                : 12 May 2017
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2017

                Parasitology
                toxocara,roundworms,zoonosis,geohelminths,soil-transmitted helminths,playgrounds,sandpits,soil,children

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