The presence of parasites was investigated by the examination of 1944 dog faecal samples collected from urban (n=646) and rural (n=1298) areas of the province of Neuquén, Patagonia, Argentina. Parasitic agents (PA) were found in 37.86% of samples. A total of 15 different PA were detected, including Toxocara canis (16.35%), Taenia spp./Echinococcus spp. (12.65%), Trichurisvulpis (6.06%), Giardia spp. (1.29%), Toxascaris leonina (0.56%), Ancylostomacaninum (0.41%), Dipylidium caninum (0.31%), Diphyllobothrium spp. (0.10%), among others. Several of these PA are recognized as zoonotic agents. Therefore, the results of this investigation revealed that local population is exposed to a broad spectrum of zoonotic parasites by means of environmental contamination with dog faeces. Prevalence of PA was slightly higher in rural (40.06%) than in urban (33.44%) locations. Distribution of groups of PA (cestodes, nematodes, and protozoa) showed statistical differences between both habitats. Prevalence of cestodes (18.18%) and protozoa (11.86%) was significantly higher in the rural environment than in urban areas and nematodes (29.10%) were more frequent in urban locations. Infection of dogs with Linguatula serrata and Cryptosporidium sp. was demonstrated for the first time in Neuquén. Rural dogs of the study area are under hydatic disease control program, which includes treatment with praziquantel every 6 weeks; thus, the finding of high level of cestode infection in these areas is of great relevance. The epidemiology of zoonotic parasitic infections in urban and rural dogs showed different patterns and, in consequence, different control measurements should be applied in each location.

No abstract

The presence of Aedes aegypti is reported beyond its current limit of distribution in Argentina, in the city of Neuquén, Neuquén Province. Ovitraps were placed to collect Ae. aegypti eggs between December 2009 and April 2010. The geographical distribution of Culex eduardoi, Psorophora ciliata and Ps. cingulata is extended with new records from two provinces.

No abstract

Abstract:We studied the antibiotic sensitivity of injured coliforms isolated from drinking water of La Plata, Argentina. The antibiotic sensitivity test by the agar diffusion method were proved in: Klebsiella oxytoca (14 strains), Enterobacter aerogenes (4 strains) and Enterobacter cloacae genomic group 3 (14 strains). We found that while these impaired total coliforms were sensitive to piperacillin-tazobactam (TAZ), netilmicin (NTL), ofloxacin (OFLX), and norfloxacin (NFLX) (100%), they had resistant to aminopenicillin-sulbactam (AMS) and nitrofurantoin (NIT) (100%). The resistance to antibiotics demonstrated in these strains would point to the need to promote a rational and judicious use of antimicrobial agents while at the same time implementing a program of active vigilance aimed at ensuring the highest quality of drinking water throughout the system. Key words: Injured coliforms, Water, Antibiotics, ResistanceThe microbiological quality of water destined for human consumption is evaluated in an indirect fashion by screening for the presence of so-called indicators of fecal contamination. Accordingly, during more than the last 80 years the coliform bacterial group has been employed in this way for the assessment of the sanitary quality of drinking water. Nevertheless, the failure to detect the presence of these indicator organisms constitutes an insufficient criterion for concluding that a sample of water is bacteriologically pure since these same coliforms, when injured, may show up as negative in the conventional assays normally employed while still remaining potentially viable. Such sublethal modifications in the bacterial phenotype are thought to arise as the result of environmental influences of both a biotic and an abiotic nature and can furthermore be accompanied by alterations in the wild-type pattern of susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. In this regard, although antibioticresistant strains of enterobacteria have been found in aquatic surroundings in the wild and in wastewater (7,10,14), little is known regarding the prevalence of injured Through the use of m-T7 agar, especially formulated for the rescue of impaired bacteria, we isolated injured coliforms from the drinking-water distribution network of La Plata (l). These isolates, once identified, proved to be of the following species: Klebsiella oxytoca [14 strains], Enterobacter aerogenes [4 strains] and E. cloacae genomic group 3 [14 strains]. The objective of the current work was to study the antibiotic sensitivity of the injured enterobacteria within the public water supply in La Plata city, Buenos Aires, Argentina.For the isolation of injured coliforms from drinkingwater samples, we employed the membrane-filtration technique (2) and at the same time measured the pH and free-chlorine concentration of each specimen. With water derived from each source throughout the city, the