Investigation on environmental contamination by taenia eggs in Iringa rural district, Tanzania

Cysticercosis and taeniosis are global health problems with impacts to human beings and development of livestock industry. Condemnation of infected meat pulls back efforts of small scale livestock farmers toward economic improvements. Contaminated environment due to improper disposal of human wastes results to wide spread of these diseases. This study investigated environmental contamination by Taenia eggs in Iringa rural district, Iringa region, Tanzania from 2010 to 2011. Modified centrifugal floatation technique was used to determine presence of Taenia eggs from soil samples collected from four sites backyard, Open Defaecation Area (ODA), Toilet and Waste Disposal Sites (WDS) of 24 households from Migoli and Izazi villages. No recognizable Taenia egg was found. However eggs from four geo-helminth species were found namely Ascaris lumbricoides, Schistosoma mansoni, Strongyloides stercoralis and Trichuris trichiura. The frequency of T. trichiura was 81.97%, Ascaris lumbricoides 8.2%, Strongyloides stercoralis 3.3%, Schistosoma mansoni 0.5% and unidentified eggs 6.01%. The most contaminated site was backyard with the prevalence of 30.1% followed by WDS 25.7% then ODA 24.0% and the least was toilet 20.2%. The findings also revealed that the environment of Izazi village was more contaminated by geo-helminths eggs (19.4%) than that of Migoli village (12.1%) and that moisture content of soil favours growth, development, spread and transmission of geo-helminths eggs. Education on better personal hygiene habits, mass chemotherapy and long-term research employing molecular techniques are highly recommended.