This study aims to report the incidence of Calodium hepaticum among dogs and cats,
pets or stray animals, captured by the Zoonosis Control Center (CCZ) in Lages, Santa
Catarina, Brazil. Fecal samples from 108 pet dogs and eight pet cats, and from 357
stray dogs and 97 stray cats, captured by CCZ, were analyzed within the period from
July 2010 to November 2012. Coproparasitological exams were performed by techniques
of sedimentation, centrifuge-flotation, and simple flotation. Among 465 fecal samples
from dogs and 105 from cats, the overall spurious infections for C. hepaticum eggs
were 1.05%. For dogs, this positivity was 0.43% and for cats it was 3.81%. The two
positive dogs were stray and out of the four cats, three were stray and one was a
pet. Although the occurrence of C. hepaticum eggs was low, these data reveal the
existence of infected rodents, especially in public places, since, out of the six
infected animals, five (83.33%) were stray. These results are discussed and analyzed
with an emphasis on the risk to public health.