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Does the use of tubular digesters to treat livestock waste lower the risk of infection from Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia?
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Does the use of tubular digesters to treat livestock waste lower the risk of infection from Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia?

Maureen N Kinyua, Ileana Wald, Fabricio Camacho-Céspedes, Ricardo Izurieta, Charles N Haas and Sarina J Ergas
Journal of water and health, v 14(5), pp 738-753
Oct 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2016.032
PMID: 27740541
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2016.032View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze),  Open

Abstract

Animals Cattle Costa Rica - epidemiology Cryptosporidiosis - epidemiology Cryptosporidiosis - parasitology Cryptosporidiosis - transmission Cryptosporidium parvum - isolation & purification Environmental Pollution - analysis Giardia lamblia - isolation & purification Giardiasis - epidemiology Giardiasis - parasitology Giardiasis - transmission Occupational Health Oocysts - physiology Public Health Risk Factors Sewage - parasitology Sus scrofa Waste Disposal, Fluid Waste Water - parasitology Water Pollution - analysis
Worldwide, high incidences of cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis are attributed to livestock waste. Quantitative microbial risk assessment can be used to estimate the risk of livestock related infections from Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia. The objective of this paper was to assess the occupational and public health risks associated with management of raw and anaerobically digested livestock waste in two rural communities in Costa Rica based on fomite, soil and crop contamination and livestock waste management exposure pathways. Risks related to cattle waste were greater than swine waste due to cattle shedding more (oo)cysts. Cryptosporidium parvum also posed a greater risk than Giardia lamblia in all exposure pathways due to livestock shedding high loads of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts and oocysts' lower inactivation rates during anaerobic digestion compared with Giardia lamblia cysts. The risk of infection from exposure to contaminated soil and crops was significantly lower for a community using tubular anaerobic digesters to treat livestock waste compared to a community where the untreated waste was applied to soil. The results indicate that treatment of livestock waste in small-scale tubular anaerobic digesters has the potential to significantly decrease the risk of infection below the World Health Organization's acceptable individual annual risk of infection (10 ).

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6 citations in Web of Science
6 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Environmental Sciences
Microbiology
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Water Resources
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