Epidemiology of intestinal helminth parasites in stray dogs from markets in south-eastern Nigeria

Abstract

A survey of gastrointestinal helminth parasites of stray dogs (Canis familiaris) was conducted at Obollo-Afor and Ekwulobia markets, in Enugu and Anambra States, south-eastern Nigeria, respectively, to determine the patterns of infection among dogs in different parts of south-eastern Nigeria. Faecal samples collected, using long forceps, from every dog encountered in the markets between June 2007 and December 2008 were analysed by the Kato-Katz technique. Out of 413 dogs examined in both markets, 217 (52.6%) were infected with at least one of five parasites (Toxocara spp., Dipylidium caninum, Ancylostoma caninum, Taenia spp. and Trichuris vulpis). Overall faecal egg intensity of infection was 49.9 ± 58.7 eggs/g (epg). The prevalence of infection was comparable between the markets and between the male and female dogs, but varied significantly (P < 0.05) by age, decreasing from 78.9% in pups to 36.0% in adult dogs. The mean intensity pattern was similar to that of prevalence, decreasing from 86.7 ± 63.0 epg in pups to 22.1 ± 34.4 in adults. The most important individual parasite infection was Ancylostoma spp. (39.2%; 30.0 ± 41.2 epg) while T. vulpis was the least important (1.9%; 0.7 ± 5.4 epg). Generally, prevalence and intensity patterns of each parasite were also comparable between the markets and between sexes, but significantly (P < 0.05) age-dependent. The implications of these findings to public health in Nigeria and other endemic countries are discussed in relation to options for cost-effective control design and implementation.

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

“…The overall prevalence of intestinal helminths found in this study is 86 %, revealing a very high level of infection. Similar findings were also reported with intestinal helminths from Mashhad (91 %, Razmi et al 2006) and Chenaran (66 %, Beiromvand et al 2013) Klimpel et al 2010) and Nigeria (52.6 % in Nigeria, Okoye et al 2011) rather than to those typically seen in North Europe, where very low prevalence values are reported such as 6 % in Finland (Pullola et al 2006) and 9.4 % in Germany (Becker et al 2012). Generally, these results can be easily explained, as these animals have no health control measures and, because of their habits, they are exposed to natural infection more than owned dogs.…”

“…Furthermore, no significant differences were observed between the proportions of juvenile and adult dogs infected with T. canis which consistent with result of Omar and Lewis (1993) from Egypt and Bajera et al (2011) from Poland. In comparison, other findings from other geographic regions revealed that T. canis was higher in puppies than in older dogs (Razmi et al 2006;Papazahariadou et al 2007;Gholami et al 2011;Okoye et al 2011;Xhaxhiu et al 2011). As regards the effect of gender, in accordance with Fontanarrosa et al (2006); Martínez-Carrasco et al (2007) and Martínez-Moreno et al (2007), there was no significant difference in the overall prevalence of T. canis infection between males and females.…”

Intestinal parasitic fauna and zoonotic potentials of commonly consumed wildlife

“…During this survey, it was observed that hunters used raw offal and intestinal organs from this wildlife including those from wild monkeys, to feed their hunting dogs. This could be suitable avenue for transmission of zoonotic parasites to humans as in many tropical communities, dogs roam the streets untended, defecate indiscriminately and contaminate the environment with helminth eggs and larvae, protozoan cysts and other infective agents in areas where children play outdoors and adults walk the streets barefoot, picking up infections from contaminated soils (Sowemimo and Asaolu, 2008;Okoye et al;2011).…”

Frequency of geohelminths in public squares in Pelotas, RS, Brazil

“…Stray or lone dogs were spotted in every square where this study was conducted; on some occasions, dog feces were found in flower beds and even in children's playgrounds. Parasites of the Ancylostoma and Toxocara genera are usually diagnosed in stray dogs in endemic countries (OKOYE et al, 2011), and presence of these nematodes may result in both cutaneous and visceral larva migrans. These are common diseases in the Americas that nevertheless have been neglected by public health agencies WILKINS, 2009;BOWMAN et al, 2010).…”