Agricultural practices and intestinal parasites: A study of socio-environmental risk factors associated with leafy vegetable production in La Plata horticultural area, Argentina

ANDREA CELINA FALCONE; MARÍA LORENA ZONTA; JUAN MANUEL UNZAGA; GRACIELA TERESA NAVONE

Parasite Epidemiology and Control

Elsevier

Año: 2023

2405-6731

Foodborne diseases now represent one of the most important public health problems. The objectives were to analyze the leafy vegetables and crop soil to detect parasitic species and evaluate the factors that increase the risk of parasitic contamination in the productive units in La Plata horticultural area. The study included 261 leafy vegetable and 87 crop soil samples that wereprocessed using washing, sedimentation, and flotation techniques. Socio-environmental characteristics and agricultural practices were surveyed, and a generalized linear model was used to assess the change in parasitic prevalence with different predictor variable. The 58.6% of leafyvegetable and 31.0% of crop soil samples contained parasitic species, the most prevalent beingBlastocystis sp. and oocysts of Cryptosporidium spp. Risk factors were the limited access to health, dirt roads, children and dogs circulating in crops, field cultivation, furrow irrigation and lettuce cultivation. The high prevalence of intestinal parasites in the vegetable crops was mainly associated with the conditions of structural precariousness in the production units. These resultselaborated with the participation of the population, provide valuable knowledge for the planningof epidemiological programs that include environmental health as a fundamental nexus in healthcampaigns.