Danny:
Two things in reply: 1st. I am glad to see that people are
beginning to recognize the public health aspects of pet ownership. There
are responsibilities that come with it such as good veterinary care and
perhaps taking a parasitology course now and then ;). The answer to your
first question about the availability of betadine on your side of the
pond is yes it most likely is available at the pharmacy or at a hospital
supply company. In hospital, it is used to decontaminate many things
including wounds and ulcers. It is a hospital staple in this regard.
It is sometimes referred to as a "tamed iodine" solution. The bad news
is that when I indicated that it rapidly kills the eggs, it does so when
the contaminated pipette, microscope slide, or flask is "immersed" in the
solution. I don't know about its use to decontaminate the evironment.
Secondly, as I indicated in a reply to Dr. Sun regarding testing
for ocular larva migrans, there is a really excellant book on Toxocara put
out by the British Parasitological Society. For those who missed the
reference it is given here again. Note that some of the authors are
British citizens and may even reside in your localities. Feel free to
contact them for advice and suggestions as they would be most happy to
know that there work has made an impression on their neighbors.
Toxocara and toxocariasis: Clinical, Epidemilogical, and Molecular
Perspectives. Lewis, JW and Maizels, RM (eds.) London, British
Parasitological Society with The Institute of Biology, pp 169.
Thanks for visiting with us.
Steve Kayes
On Tue, 6 Feb 1996, Danny Thompson wrote:
>kayes at SUNGCG.USOUTHAL.EDU ("Stephen G. Kayes") wrote:
>> >Peter:
> >
> > I would like to add to Paula's comment that, "sorry, they don't
> >decay".
> [snip]
> > In practical terms in the lab we cannot kill them with
> >organic solvents but we can rapidly kill them with a dilute iodine
> >solution (Betadine diluted to 20 - 30%).
>> What is this? Is there a commercial product that contains such a
> mixture (obviously in the UK I would have to find a comparable
> product). Is this a "restricted" substance?
>> Sorry for all the questions but I am also very interested in this
> topic for similar reasons. The area in which I live has a large dog
> population, most of it uncontrolled. We have a large grass verge
> outside of our house where the dogs (sometimes aided and abetted by
> their owners) deposit their feces - if we're lucky they use the grass,
> otherwise it is the pavement.
>> My concern is that we could bring the eggs into our house on our
> footwear - our young children play on our carpeted floor and quite
> possibly (probably?) our house is infected with the toxacara eggs.
>> The UK position seems to be "ignore it and it'll go away" but lately
> more folks attention is being drawn and I was horrified at my findings
> just one night on the Web. If there is a chemical that I can put down
> at my expense that will kill off the eggs I'm happy enough to buy it
> by the tanker-load!
>>> | Danny Thompson |
> | It's a Bird, innit!. It's a bloody sea bird...... |
> | .. it's not any bloody Flavour. Albatross! |
>>
