General Information
Environmental parasitology (EP) addresses the question which ecologically relevant information can be obtained by identifying or analyzing parasites in the environment. In the common understanding, two different branches of EP exist. Whilst the more ecologically based approach is interested in parasites as indicators for environmental health, the more medically oriented understanding of EP specifically concerns the occurrence and diagnosis of human parasites in the environment.
Medically Based EP
Infective stages of helminths and protozoan parasites are very resistant to environmental conditions. Their occurrence in food and water used for human consumption or recreational purposes represents one important way of parasite transmission to humans. Although disinfection methods used in conventional waste water and drinking water treatment are often very effective in removing or killing transmission stages, sophisticated water treatment plants are not established...
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Sures, B., Nachev, M. (2016). Environmental Parasitology. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_1076
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_1076
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