Table 1.
Prevalence of Toxocara sp. including the presence of larval forms in specimens collected from sites in each NYC borough.
Larvated, infectious Toxocara sp. were only found in the Bronx, the borough that had the highest prevalence of Toxocara contamination.
Fig 1.
Toxocara forms isolated in NYC specimens: a and b: Larvated ‘infective’ Toxocara eggs at 40x magnification, c: Unlarvated Toxocara egg at 40 x magnification, obtained in NYC study.
Fig 2.
Geospatial results of Toxocara sampling across NYC.
Toxocara was found in those sites represented by either blue triangles (unembryonated egg(s)) red stars (embryonated egg(s)). Toxocara was not found at sites marked by black circles. The highest density of Toxocara geo-contamination was found in the Bronx, which was the only borough where infected larvae were found. Sampling ArcMap of NYC, created using ArcGIS 10.6.1.
Fig 3.
qPCR results, parks that were qPCR-positive were contaminated with T. cati.
Calculated egg count was derived from dilutions of a known amount of Toxocara cati eggs and correlated to 40 –Ct (Spearman r = 0.999, p < 0.0001).
Fig 4.
Association of positive Toxocara results with the median income of residents living in the ZIP codes of sampled sites.
The line represents the median income of families living in the zip code where Toxocara testing was performed. Results aggregated by borough. (Spearman r = -0.7, p = 0.233).
Fig 5.
Toxocara eggs/park by borough.
Kruskal-Wallis P = 0.0365. Eggs were not equally distributed in the parks by borough. The Bronx* has the highest egg burden compared to the other boroughs.