Prevalence of Toxocara canis infection in public squares of the Concórdia City, Santa Catarina, Brazil

schools, squares andparks where sand is present can constitute an important transmission form for several parasitic zoonosis, representing a potential risk, mainly for children in school age that play at these places. among the several zoonosis, visceral larva migrans (vlm), is an important pathology characterized by the migration of the larval stages of toxocara spp. to human tissues originating imunoalergic type of reactions. the objective of our work was to determine the occurrence of parasites eggs in samples of sands from public squares ofconcordia city. this work was accomplished with 12 samples of sand collected at different squares of concordia: centro, nazare, vista alegre and industriarlos. 500 g. samples of 4 different places of the same square were collected in plastic flasks and then analyzed by the spontaneous sedimentation exam, proposed by lutz. a 28% (7/25) of positive samples for toxocara canis eggs is demonstrating that the public squares of concordia represent a high level of environmental contamination for enteroparasites. such result was anticipated due to the high number of canine population in the municipal district and their easy access to these places.