Rabies virus is transmitted most commonly through a bite from an infected dog. Especially, stray dogs that are not excluded from contact with rabid wild animals can become rabies vectors. Therefore, serological survey of rabies virus from stray dogs in Seoul Metropolitan City was carried out in this study. To investigate prevalence of rabies antibodies in the stray dogs, serum samples were taken from 500 stray dogs between April and December 2010. Antibodies to rabies virus were detected by indirect ELISA. Of 500 tested sera, 147 (29.4%) were positive to rabies virus. Prevalence rates of rabies antibodies(PRRA) in northern and southern Han river region of Seoul were 26.4% and 33.2% respectively. PRRA in male and female dogs were 33.6% and 26.1% respectively. PRRA in less than 1 year, 1∼2 < years, 2∼3< years, 3∼5< years, 5∼10< years and over 10 years old dogs were 12.7%, 21.6%, 26.4%, 36.4%, 32.5% and 46.4%, respectively. These results indicates that antibody seroprevalence to rabies is still not enough to prevent rabies and rabies vaccination is required to enhance the seroprevalence in the dogs. To improve the situation, measures to raise public awareness of rabies and its prevention is needed. Also, reducing stray dogs and keeping companion animals from contact with wild animals are indispensable for the prevention of rabies.
To evaluate the potential risk associated with zoonotic ascarid eggs in educational facilities and public playground in Seoul city, the sand samples collected from April to December in 2011 were examined with a fecal flotation method. Of 5,066 sand samples from 1,367 playgrounds tested, 12 sands from 12 places (0.88%) had ascarid eggs. Sand samples in educational facilities were more contaminated (10/870, 1.15%) with the parasite eggs than those of public playground area (2/497, 0.4%). Fisher's exact tests were used to make pairwise comparisons between which locations were more or less similar with regard to levels of contamination. We didn't find significantly different from one another. Most ascarid eggs detected were found in the Spring. Through this study, we hope to raise awareness of contamination of playgrounds by potentially infectious ascarid ova.
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