{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:23:43Z","timestamp":1792790623185,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,4]],"date-time":"2024-09-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1725408000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT.<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Parasites are generally associated with lower income countries in tropical and subtropical areas. Still, they are also prevalent in low-income communities in the southern United States. Studies characterizing the epidemiology of parasites in the United States are limited, resulting in little comprehensive understanding of the problem. This study investigated the environmental contamination of parasites in the southern United States by determining each parasite\u2019s contamination rate and burden in five low-income communities. A total of 499 soil samples of approximately 50\u2009g were collected from public parks and private residences in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. A technique using parasite floatation, filtration, and bead-beating was applied to dirt samples to concentrate and extract parasite DNA from samples and detected via multiparallel quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). qPCR detected total sample contamination of <jats:italic>Blastocystis<\/jats:italic> spp. (19.03%), <jats:italic>Toxocara cati<\/jats:italic> (6.01%), <jats:italic>Toxocara canis<\/jats:italic> (3.61%), <jats:italic>Strongyloides stercoralis<\/jats:italic> (2.00%), <jats:italic>Trichuris trichiura<\/jats:italic> (1.80%), <jats:italic>Ancylostoma duodenale<\/jats:italic> (1.42%), <jats:italic>Giardia intestinalis<\/jats:italic> (1.40%), <jats:italic>Cryptosporidium<\/jats:italic> spp. (1.01%), <jats:italic>Entamoeba histolytica<\/jats:italic> (0.20%), and <jats:italic>Necator americanus<\/jats:italic> (0.20%). The remaining samples had no parasitic contamination. Overall parasite contamination rates varied significantly between communities: western Mississippi (46.88%), southwestern Alabama (39.62%), northeastern Louisiana (27.93%), southwestern South Carolina (27.93%), and south Texas (6.93%) (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> &lt;0.0001). <jats:italic>T. cati<\/jats:italic> DNA burdens were more significant in communities with higher poverty rates, including northeastern Louisiana (50.57%) and western Mississippi (49.60%) compared with southwestern Alabama (30.05%) and southwestern South Carolina (25.01%) (<jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic> = 0.0011). This study demonstrates the environmental contamination of parasites and their relationship with high poverty rates in communities in the southern United States.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4269\/ajtmh.24-0075","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,23]],"date-time":"2024-07-23T21:07:17Z","timestamp":1721768837000},"page":"506-514","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Parasitic Contamination of Soil in the Southern United States"],"prefix":"10.4269","volume":"111","author":[{"given":"Christine","family":"Crudo Blackburn","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas;"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sally Mingshuang","family":"Yan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David","family":"McCormick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lauren Nicholas","family":"Herrera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roumen Borilov","family":"Iordanov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mark Daniel","family":"Bailey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maria Elena","family":"Bottazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter J.","family":"Hotez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rojelio","family":"Mejia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2795","reference":[{"key":"b1","series-title":"PLoS Negl Trop Dis","first-page":"e256","article-title":"Neglected infections of poverty in the United States of 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