An epidemiological survey on intestinal helminths of stray dogs in Mashhad, North-east of Iran

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths in stray dogs in the northeast of Iran, with special attention to those parasites that can be transmitted to human. In this experiment, a total of 72 adult and 18 juvenile stray dogs were collected and necropsied for the presence of helminth parasites from October 2011 to August 2012. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths was 86 % (95 % CI: 79.2-92.8 %). The observed helminths of the gastrointestinal tract were listed as follows: Toxocara canis (29 %), Toxascaris leonina (7 %), Ancylostoma caninum (2 %), Taenia hydatigena (43 %), Dipylidium caninum (39 %), Echinococcus granulosus (38 %), Mesocestoides lineatus (16 %), Taenia multiceps (11 %), Taenia ovis (3 %). There were no significant differences for the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths between female (83.6 %) and male (89.7 %) and between young (89 %) and adult (72.2 %) animals. However, the prevalence of E. granulosus, T. hydatigena and D. caninum showed an increasing trend with increasing host age, significantly. Based on our data, it is important to point out the presence of zoonotic agents, namely E. granulosus and T. canis in stray dogs in the investigated area. Due to its impact on public health, appropriate control measures should be taken and it is recommended to determine the most appropriate preventive methods.

Prevalence of intestinal parasites detected in routine coproscopic methods in dogs and cats from the Masovian voivodeship in 2012-2015

“…Moreover, since 2006 in Warsaw they are obligated to clean up after their dogs, that might protect the environment against spreading of parasite infections. Both in dogs and cats the eggs of roundworms were identified more often in young animals than in older ones, which is in line with the results obtained in previous epidemiological studies on the prevalence of the nematodes of the genus Toxocara, and it seems obvious that this observation results from intrauterine and lactogenic route of infection (5,9,30,32,34,38). Correlations between toxocarosis and the sex of the animals were observed in both dogs and cats, but they were statistically insignificant.…”

“…Similarly to other intestinal parasite infections, hookworms were identified more frequently in dog males (19%) as compared to females (15.8%), which confirms the observations of other researchers (9,38). The authors of the study cannot explain the higher prevalence in older dogs in comparison to younger ones.…”

“…The average T. canis infection prevalence in Germany during 1999-2002 was significantly higher: 22.4% of dogs were infected with roundworms (3). Also in Free State Province in South Africa (21%) (23) and north-eastern Iran (29%) the prevalence was higher than in Poland (9). Definitely the highest prevalence of roundworm infection was observed in dogs from Albania where it amounted to 75.7% of the examined animals (38).…”

“…The influence of sex on the infection prevalence of roundworms is not unambiguous. Some researchers observe more cases of "toxocarosis" in female dogs than males (9,38). Others have noted opposite trends (11), which are presumably caused by a greater tendency of males to wander around.…”

Intestinal helminths of stray dogs from Tunisia with special reference to zoonotic infections

“…However, no official data are available on the cost of condemnation of infected livers due to traumatic hepatitis caused by the metacestode larval stage, Cysticercus tenuicollis. Similar T. hydatigena infection rates to those seen here were reported in dogs from Albania (16·2%; Xhaxhiu et al 2011) and Sardinia (11%; Scala et al 2015), whereas higher prevalence in older dogs were recorded from Algeria (43%; Bentounsi et al 2009), north-east (43%; Emamapour et al 2015) and southeastern Iran (53·3%, Geraili et al 2016). The second most frequently found taeniid was T. pisiformis (10·33%) whose prevalence increased with age from 1·53 to 25% (P = 0·0009).…”