CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Canine faecal contamination contributes to environmental degradation and increases the exposure of humans -mainly children- to helminthic infections. We studied the magnitude and spatial distribution of faecal contamination in the pavements of two representative neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires suburbs. The analysis was made in pavements selected at random from a low-income neighbourhood and a middle-income neighbourhood. Field maps were drawn viewed from above on millimeter paper at 1:100 scale including all substrates and objects observed in each pavement and were loaded afterwards to geographic information system (GIS) Arc View 3.1 with a digitiser board. Faeces spatial distribution and association to substrates or standing elements were analyzed at three scales: substrate patch, pavement and neighborhood. Permeable substrate coverage was higher in the lower income neighbourhood (LIN, 75%) than in the middle income (MIN, 35%). The faeces where not distributed homogeneously in the substrates. In both neighbourhoods the substrates with >50% grass cover showed a significantly higher proportion of faeces compared to substrates with <50% grass cover, bare soil and tile. At the pavement scale, no relation was detected among faeces in pavements and number of trees, posts or domiciled dogs in the block. Neither between number of faeces and percentage cover of each substrate. At patch scale, substrate patches with faeces were bigger than those without faeces. Patches with faeces did not differ in their shape when compared between neighborhoods, and presented more regular shapes than patches without faeces. Faeces self spatial distribution pattern was mainly random, even when analyzed in respect to trees or standing objects. The paper suggests measures for sustainable control of this problem.

enviar mensaje