4%) had sand, 1/13 (7.7%) had a grass turf, and 10/13 (76.9%) had both sand and turf. Eggs of Toxocara spp. were found in three of them (23.1%). Of the contaminated school playgrounds, one was composed of sand and grass turf, another only of sand, and the third only of grass. All the schools had fences and gates, and the gates were closed and no animals were observed on the school grounds during the study. Of the 90 domiciles investigated, dogs were observed in 41, and no Nintedanib datasheet cats were observed. In 12/41 (29.3%) dogs, eggs of Toxocara spp. were identified in the feces ( Table 2). The presence of parasitized dogs showed an association with seropositivity

of the children (p < 0.01) ( Table 1). The lack of a domestic animal or the presence of non-parasitized animals contributed to the seronegativity of the children (p < 0.05). As far as we

are aware, this is the first study of toxocariasis that investigated simultaneously the seropositivity of children, the frequency with which the children played in public squares, and the contamination of these squares as well as of their school and peridomiciliar environments. The frequency with which the children visited the public squares was positively associated with seropositivity, i.e., those children who played in the public squares nearly every day of the week had a higher risk of contamination. BMN 673 cost All of the public squares investigated proved to be contaminated, and the majority with a high parasite load. In another municipality of this same region of Paraná, Tiyo et al. (2008) also observed that eggs of Toxocara Resminostat spp. were present in all the public squares used for leisure activities, independently of the time of year. These data indicate the risk of contracting toxocariasis in these modern urbanized spaces that were built for the purpose of improving the quality of life of the citizens. The rate of seropositivity for anti-Toxocara IgG antibodies among the children investigated was lower than in studies

performed in other regions of the same state ( Paludo et al., 2007, Colli et al., 2010 and Mattia et al., 2011) and similar to seropositivity rates found in Rotterdam in The Netherlands ( Buijs et al., 1994) and in the cities of New Haven and Bridgeport in the United States ( Sharghi et al., 2001). The contamination of certain environmental spaces routinely used by children was also considered in this study, and proved to be an important epidemiological factor. The peridomicile showed a close association with seroprevalence in the children, even if the peridomiciliar sand and grass turf areas showed a lower positivity index and a smaller parasite load compared to the public squares. This can be attributed to the longer periods of time that children remain in the peridomiciliar environment, combined with the very frequent habit of keeping pet dogs, which also contributed to contamination of this space.