Waterborne diseases are a major public health problem in many countries of the world including Ethiopia. Waterborne diseases are caused by viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminthes, and fungi. Currently, about 1.1 billion people in the world drink unsafe water, which is responsible for millions of cases of waterborne diseases. Ascariasis is among the several parasites which is widely prevalent he...

BACKGROUND The roundworm Ascaris lumbricoides infects 0.8 billion people worldwide, and Ascaris suum infects innumerable pigs across the globe. The extent of natural cross-transmission of Ascaris between pig and human hosts in different geographical settings is unknown, warranting investigation. METHODS Adult Ascaris organisms were obtained from humans and pigs in Europe, Africa, Asia, and La...

Ascaris suum eggs were inactivated in distilled water and digested sludge by butanoic, pentanoic, and hexanoic acids. The fatty acids (short-chain fatty acids [SCFA]) were effective only when protonated and at sufficient concentrations. The conjugate bases were not effective at the concentrations evaluated. Predictions from an inhibition model (50% inhibitory concentration [IC(50)]) based on qu...

Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinases (PDKs) from the anaerobic parasitic nematode Ascaris suum and the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans were functionally expressed with hexahistidine tags at their N-termini and purified to apparent homogeneity. Both recombinant PDKs (rPDKs) were dimers, were not autophosphorylated and exhibited similar specific activities with the A. suum pyruvate dehydrog...

Handling, storage, treatment and use of different forms of animals excrements entails two principle problems: epizootological or epidemiological and hygienical. Solid excrements contain high numbers of common intestinal microflora (E. coli, faecal streptococci, lactobacilli etc.), bacteria that are pathogenic also for man (salmonellae, mycobacteria, listeriae etc.), protozoa (Isospora spp., Bal...