§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table to show for each of the last three years his estimates of(a) the number of children in Great Britain who have been infected with toxocara canis, (b) how many of those infections are attributable to dogs, (c) how many are attributable to foxes and (d) how many are attributable to other canines; and what is his estimate of the level of infected (i) foxes and (ii) dogs in (1) urban and (2) rural areas.
§ Mr. DorrellHuman Toxocariasis is caused by a variety of species in the genus toxocara. Information collected by the Public Health Laboratory Service communicable disease surveillance centre refers to infection caused by any of these parasites.
The table lists the total number of laboratory reports of infections due to Toxocara species in children for the period 1988–91. These data cover England, Wales Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man, but not Scotland.
No information is available on how many of these infections were attributable to dogs, foxes or other canines. The Public Health Laboratory Service is concerned predominantly with human infection and does not have information on the level of infection amongst urban and rural dogs and foxes.
Toxocariasis Age Goup Laboratory reports by year 1988 1989 1990 1991 1 year — — — — 1 to 4 years 15 8 12 11 5 to 9 years 9 5 8 6 10 to 14 years 5 3 2 1 TOTAL 29 16 22 18