You are far more likely to contract one of these bacterial infections from eating improperly prepared foods or walking barefoot where an infected animal has defecated (
roundworms).
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the coprolite and thus the parasitic
roundworm eggs preserved inside dated back to between 16,570 and 17,000 years ago, towards the end of the last Ice Age.
"The common interpretation that the presence of [this
roundworm parasite] in modern American wild carnivores is a consequence of their contact with domestic dogs or cats should no longer be assumed as the only possible explanation," the scientists wrote in the study, which was published in the journal Parasitology.
Toxocara species included the dog
roundworm, Toxocara canis, and the cat
roundworm, Toxocara cati.
"Of the living bugs I found, there was a selection of mites, midge larvae,
roundworms, tardigrades, an unidentified larva and of course a lot of bacteria.
This test can help identify whether a
roundworm is present, and what type of treatment might be most effective.
Infections by intestinal worms including the soil-transmitted worms such as giant
roundworm, hookworm, whipworm, and schistosomiasis are an important public health concern.
Baylisascaris procyonis, the common intestinal
roundworm of raccoons, has increasingly been recognized as a source of severe, often fatal, neurologic disease in humans, particularly children.
The reason is that Ivermectins kill
roundworms but not flukes and tapeworms.
Cats can get
roundworms and tapeworms if they hunt, kill and eat small mammals.
A single dose of de-worming medication is usually not adequate to eliminate
roundworms because most dewormers act on the adult worms in the intestines and do not catch the migrating larvae.