Environmental Contamination by Taenia Eggs in Iringa Rural District, Tanzania

Cysticercosis and Taeniosis are global health problems with impacts on human beings and the development of the livestock industry. This study tested the presence of Taenia eggs in the soil of two villages in Iringa rural district, Tan- zania. No recognizable Taenia egg was found, though those found were difficult to identify due to absorption of the flota- tion fluid which made them dark with difficulties to see the innermost structures. In view of their sizes (30 - 40 microns in diameter) these eggs were considered to be of Taenia spp. In addition, eggs from four geo-helminth species were identi- fied namely; Ascaris lumbricoides, Schistosoma mansoni, Strongyloides stercoralis and Trichuris trichiura eggs. The fre- quency of T. trichiura was 81.97%, Ascaris lumbricoides was 8.2%, unidentified eggs 6.01%, Strongyloides stercoralis 3.3% and Schistosoma mansoni was 0.5%. The most contaminated sites were backyard with a prevalence of 30.1% fol- lowed by west disposal site (WDS) 25.7%, open defaecation area (ODA) 24.0% and the least was toilet 20.2%. About 31 (31%) samples had no eggs. The findings revealed that the environment of Izazi village was more contaminated by geo- helminth eggs (19.4%) than that of Migoli village (12.1%) and that higher moisture content in soils favors the growth, de- velopment, spread and transmission of geo-helminth eggs.