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Cryptosporidium is a waterborne parasite that causes diarrheal disease in humans and in cattle. Risk factors for human illness include contact with surface water such as lakes and rivers, exposure to contaminated municipal drinking water, as well as zoonotic transmission from livestock and agriculture. The objectives of this study are twofold: 1) to describe the temporal distribution of cryptosporidiosis in Southwestern Ontario; and 2) to determine the distribution of human cryptosporidiosis, in relation to exposures such as cryptosporidium positive cattle farms, weather events, and hydrological factors. Seasonal trends in 214 bovine and 87 human cases were assessed using regression models that predicted monthly case counts in relation to observed monthly case counts. A case-crossover approach was used to evaluate acute associations between daily environmental exposures, such as weather, hydrology, the presence of Cryptosporidium positive cattle farms within the region, and the risk of human Cryptosporidium infection. Annual seasonality was found for both human cases and bovine cases with human cases peaking in mid-summer and bovine cases peaking in late winter to early spring. Bovine cases that occurred 21 days prior to human cases were associated with a three-fold increase in the odds of human case occurrence. At both 9 and 14 days prior to human case onset, the odds of a human case increased twofold per 10-degree Celsius increase in air temperature. These results provide a preliminary hypothesis for the zoonotic transmission of cryptosporidiosis from cattle to humans via the environment and suggest that the timing of environmental conditions in relation to case occurrence is biologically plausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data collected in 14 southwestern Ontario counties and regional municipalities demonstrated that the development of community food initiatives is not happening uniformly across the region. Rather, some areas (notably Wellington and Norfolk counties and Waterloo Region) are home to a wide variety of projects that, in many cases, are woven together into networks and enjoy relatively broad-based support from local communities. In contrast, in other places (for example, Dufferin, Elgin, and Kent counties), efforts to foster the development of alternative food systems are fewer and farther between, more fledgling in nature, and appear subject to more constraints than their counterparts in neighbouring parts of the region. This paper will explore the uneven geography of community food projects in southwestern Ontario, and discuss how the presence of social capital structured around an alternative food system vision can help expand the realm of possibility for such initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between agriculture and urbanization is unquestioned. After all, urban dwellers obtain their food from the farmer and in turn provide services and goods for the farmer. One prominent agricultural economist has gone so far as to hypothesize, with supporting evidence, that inequality in farm income is not a result of original differences in soil or the quality of the population. Rather such income inequalities are attributable to the geographical position of agricultural areas in relation to major centers of urban-industrial development. Certainly, in the complex society of today, interactions between the agricultural system and the urban system are often subtle and many indirect interactions occur. The indirect interaction of expanding urbanization with four selected agricultural elements is investigated in the present paper. The four agricultural elements are, first, the percentage of farm land that is rented, second, the acres of improved land per farm, third, the percentage of improved farm land used for the production of vegetables, small fruits and nursery products, and fourth, the dollar value of land and buildings per acre of improved farm land.