Soil Contamination With Eggs of Toxocara Species in Public Parks of Karaj, Iran

Abstract

Background: Human toxocariasis is one of the zoonotic helminth diseases that is usually occurredwith exposure to contaminated soil. Both Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati are considered thecausative agents of Toxocara infection.Objectives: Thissurvey was intended to provide data on the Toxocara species eggs contaminationin soil samples in the public parks of Karaj, Iran.Materials and Methods: This study was carried out among 200 soil samples collected from12 public parks between August and September 2016 to examine the soil contamination withToxocara species eggs. Soil samples were tested for the presence of Toxocara eggs using sucroseflotation method.Results: Prevalence of Toxocara species eggs in soil samples collected from public parks was36.4%. The highest number of eggs recovered from 200 g of soil was 20. A total of 200 eggswere recovered and 7.6% were fully developed to embryonated egg stages. The contaminationrate in the third region in 4 studied areas was higher than the other regions. A similar tendencywas observed in park areas, so that parks higher than 5000 m2 were highly contaminated.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, soils of the public parks in Karaj are one of themain risk factors for human toxocariasis.