Hydatidosis has become a real concern for health care institutions and animal rearers in Tunisia. The Tunisian endemicity is aggravated by the growing number of dogs and the difficulty of getting rid of contaminated viscera because of the lack of equipment in most slaughterhouses. Therefore, microscopic and molecular tools were applied to evaluate the role of slaughterhouses in canine infection and Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato (s. l.) egg dissemination. Exposure risk to E. granulosus s. l. eggs in urban and rural areas was explored in order to implant preventive and adapted control strategies. Microscopic examinations detected taeniid eggs in 152 amongst 553 fecal samples. The copro-PCR demonstrated that 138 of 152 taeniid samples analyzed were positive for E. granulosus s. l. DNA. PCR-RFLP demonstrated that all isolated samples belonged to E. granulosus sensu stricto (s. s.). An important environmental contamination index (25.0%) by E. granulosus s. l. eggs was demonstrated. The average contamination index from the regions around slaughterhouses (23.3%; 95% CI: 17.7-28.9%) was in the same range as detected in areas located far from slaughterhouses (26.0%, 95% CI: 21.3-30.8%). Echinococcosis endemic areas were extended in both rural (29.9%, 95% CI: 24.8-34.9%) and urban locations (18.1%, 95% CI: 13.0-22.9%). The pathogen dissemination is related neither to the presence/absence of slaughterhouses nor to the location in urban or rural areas, but is probably influenced by human activities (home slaughtering) and behavior towards the infected viscera.
Abattoirs/*standards/statistics & numerical data ; Animals ; Dog Diseases/*epidemiology/prevention & control ; Dogs ; Echinococcosis/epidemiology/prevention & control/*veterinary ; Echinococcus granulosus/*physiology ; *Environmental Exposure ; *Rural Population ; Tunisia/epidemiology ; *Urban Population

BACKGROUND: Studies that evaluate the effect of age on stone composition are scarce. The aim of this study was to highlight the changes in epidemiological characteristics (stone composition and location) of urolithiasis according to patients' age. METHODS: We studied 1,301 urolithiasis patients with age ranging from 6 months to 92 yr (781 males and 520 females). Stone analysis was performed using a stereomicroscope and infrared spectroscopy to determine the morphological type and molecular composition of each stone. RESULTS: The annual average incidence of new stone formation was 31.7 per 100,000 persons. In 71.8% of cases, calculi were located in the upper urinary tract. Compared to other age groups, children and old men were more affected by bladder stones. Calcium oxalate monohydrate was the most frequent stone component, even though its frequency decreased with age (59.5% in young adults and 43.7% in the elderly, P<0.05) in favor of an increase in uric acid stones (11.5% in young adults and 36.4% in the elderly, P<0.05). Struvite stones were rare (3.8%) and more frequent in children than in adults. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of these data showed that urinary stones in Tunisian patients are tending to evolve in the same direction as the stones in patients from industrialized countries.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Calcium Oxalate/chemistry ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Kidney Calculi/chemistry/diagnosis/epidemiology ; Magnesium Compounds/chemistry ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phosphates/chemistry ; Retrospective Studies ; Spectrophotometry, Infrared ; Tunisia/epidemiology ; Uric Acid/chemistry ; Urinary Bladder Calculi/chemistry/diagnosis/epidemiology ; Urinary Calculi/*chemistry/diagnosis/epidemiology ; Young Adult