Risk of soil-transmitted helminth infections on agritourism farms in central and eastern Poland

Abstract

Agritourism provides ecological tourist services for urban dwellers in rural areas. Agritourism farms offer space and attractive scenery for people seeking to rest in quiet place and wanting healthy, outdoor recreational activities. The high epidemiological standard of agritourism farms is beneficial for the health of the farm owners and the guests. Upgraded level of the farm sanitation, also from parasitological point of view is of great importance, especially that among agritourism farms guests predominate families with small children. A field survey was carried out in 57 farms in central-eastern Poland to evaluate the environmental risk factors for geohelminth infections on agritourism farms offering tourist services for urban dwellers. Samples of soil were collected from 76 sites, i.e. yards surrounding houses, vegetable, fruit and flower gardens, playgrounds and sandpits. In addition, samples were taken from 27 public places of recreation (playgrounds at forest clearing) visited by agritourism farm guests. During visits the farms were inspected and the owners were questioned about their awareness of the threat of parasitic infections. Soil contamination with geohelminth eggs was found in 4 examined farms (7.0%), in one locality on each farm. The eggs of Toxocara spp. and Ascaris spp. were detected in single samples from 3 backyards (6.4%) and one sandpit (10.0%). In the soil samples from places of recreation outside the farms eggs of human or animal helminths were not identified. The results of this study showed that the risk of helminth infections on agritourism farms is low, since geohelminth eggs (1-3 per sample) were detected only in four samples (0.5%) among 760 collected from farms households. The farm owners must be aware of the importance of preventive measures to eliminate the environmental contamination with eggs of zoonotic soiltransmitted helminths. Special attention should be paid to the risk of intestinal parasites of cats of semi domestic behaviour migrating from neighbouring yards as well as of red foxes frequently observed in the vicinity of agritourism farms.

Parasitological contamination of arable soil in selected regions of Poland – preliminary study

“…Most of the available data from the last 20-30 years come from studies carried out in soils from inhabited areas -cities and villages [20,[27][28][29][30], including places used as children's play areas, e.g. sandboxes and city parks [16,17,[32][33][34][35][36], as well as from school premises (including rooms used as classrooms) [37,38]. Subsequently, these include, for example, soil collected from farm animal farms and their immediate vicinity [24,39,40], from gardens and fields fertilized with sewage, and from where plants intended for direct consumption (vegetables and fruits) are cultivated [9,24,41].…”

Parasitas intestinais em cães provenientes dos biomas do nordeste brasileiro: aspecto zoonótico e ambiental

“…A alta taxa de prevalência encontrada neste estudo ressalta a importância da sensibilização da população para realizar testes parasitológicos nos cães, e programas sociais e sanitários apropriados para eliminar fezes de cães dos espaços públicos, pois estabelecer medidas como coleta de fezes e higiene adequada do meio ambiente pode reduzir a contaminação ambiental e, portanto, a infecção de seres humanos com parasitas zoonóticos e a reinfecção dos cães (ROBERTSON et al, 2000;GAWOR et al, 2015).…”

Ovicidal effect of the modern disinfectant on exogenous stages of development of nematodes Trichuris skrjabini

“…Впливаючи на фактори передачі інвазії, можна переривати цей ланцюг, знищуючи паразитів на екзогенних стадіях їхнього розвитку. Тому гельмінтологічну контамінацію ґрунту та інших об'єктів довкілля у тваринницьких господарствах вважають важливою екологічною проблемою (Burden et al, 1987;Gawor & Borecka, 2015;Tchakounté et al, 2018;Kowalczyk & Kłapeć, 2020).…”