Ecogenetics of Parkinson's disease: prevalence and environmental aspects in rural areas.

We make use of the unique combination of a homogeneous genetic and racial origin in the rural population of Quebec and the facilities of free and universal access to medical care, to study the distribution of the prevalence of Parkinson's disease in the 9 rural hydrographic regions of the Province. Through 3 different methods of ascertainment, confirmed by two control probes, we demonstrate that the prevalence of Parkinson's disease is of uneven distribution within rural areas. We further investigated the characteristics of the regions of high prevalence. These regions which are predominantly agricultural and areas of intensive market gardening were also the areas with the highest use of pesticides.