Human Toxocariasis: Prevalence and Factors Associated with Biosafety in Research Laboratories

Abstract

Abstract. Human toxocariasis is a neglected parasitic disease worldwide. Researchers studying this disease use infectious strains of Toxocara for experiments. Health workers are at risk in the course of their daily routine and must adhere to biosafety standards while carrying out the activities. Researchers on biosafety concerning working with these parasites are insufficient. The aim of this study was to determine the rate of seroprevalence of Toxocara species among health-care research laboratory workers (professors, technicians, and students), and to investigate the risk factors of Toxocara infection associated with laboratory practices. This cross-sectional study involved 74 researchers at two federal universities in southern Brazil from February 2014 to February 2015; 29 researchers manipulated infective strains of Toxocara canis (test group) and 45 did not (control group). Serum samples were examined using enzymelinked immunosorbent assay. Epidemiological data were obtained via a questionnaire containing information about laboratory routine, eating behavior, and contact with dogs. The seroprevalence of anti-T. canis IgG was 14.9% (11/74; 13.8% [4/29] in the test group and 15.6% [7/45] in the control group). Most individuals in the test group correctly understood the primary mode of infection; however, 13.8% did not use gloves while manipulating T. canis eggs. Knowledge of biosafety must be well understood by health-care professionals doing laboratory work with biological agents. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the rate of seroprevalence of IgG against Toxocara spp. among professionals and students who handle infective forms of the nematode T. canis.

Human Toxocariasis: 2010 to 2020 Contributions from Brazilian Researchers

“…Mattos et al 50 performed an interesting study that determined the prevalence of infection and risk factors of infection in researchers who worked frequently with Toxocara in the laboratory. The control group consisted of researchers without contact with Toxocara in their laboratory activities.…”

Designing and standardizing Toxocara serologic diagnostic kit and determining anti-Toxocara antibodies frequency in patients referred to health care centers in Urmia (northwest of Iran)

“…Toxocariasis is one of the most common and neglected human parasitic worm infections in the world (Farmer et al 2017;Mattos et al 2016). This zoonotic disease spreads through unembryonated eggs, shed by infected dog and cat (as common definitive hosts) and become infectious after 10-14 days (Despommier 2003;Iddawela et al 2017).…”

Reactivity of recombinant Toxocara canis TES‐30/120 in experimentally infected mice

“…As a loading/positive control, we used a pool of four human samples that were known to be positive for Toxocara spp based on patient history, symptoms, eosinophilia, native TES‐ELISA (sera were adsorbed with Ascaris sp. antigen to avoid cross‐reactivity), native WB, recombinant ELISA and recombinant WB . A sera pool (n = 4) of noninfected mice from experiments 2 and 3 was used as a negative control.…”