Barbara,
I agree with Allen that cultures could be done to detect certain pathogenic bacteria or even fungal disease agents (like the fungi that causes Valley fever in the US SW). As was mentioned, however, culturing spores can be dangerous and should be done by trained professionals. Additionally, unless the disease agent is something that would be shed in the feces, their presence in privy soils are likely incidental.
For privy soils, however, it might also be worthwhile to run tests for cholera if you have reason to suspect its presence. Soil samples can be run using Cholera ELISAs or rapid test strips for the cholera antigen specifically if soil conditions are such that the cholera antigen has not become denatured.
When your message said beyond parasitology...did you mean beyond the traditional analysis of soils for intestinal parasite eggs? You can use ELISA tests to detect the antigens of the protozoan parasites Giardia (causing diarrheal disease)and Entamoeba histolytica (causing ameobic dysentery). These two parasites are rarely detected in traditional parasite analyses.
Best,
Jeremy
--- On Wed, 8/22/12, Barbara Voss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Barbara Voss <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: studying disease with soil samples
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 12:58 PM
> Dear HistArch'ers
> Beyond parasitology, are there other techniques to recover
> evidence of
> disease or infection through analysis of soil samples from
> privy deposits?
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might have,
> --Barb
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Barbara L. Voss, Associate Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 50, Main Quad
> Stanford University
> Stanford CA 94305-2034
> 650 723-3421 (dept office)
> 650 725-0605 (fax)
> [log in to unmask]
>
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