ZoonoticOnchocerca lupiInfection in Dogs, Greece and Portugal, 2011–2012

Abstract

Onchocerca lupi infection is reported primarily in symptomatic dogs. We aimed to determine the infection in dogs from areas of Greece and Portugal with reported cases. Of 107 dogs, 9 (8%) were skin snip–positive for the parasite. DNA sequences of parasites in specimens from distinct dog populations differed genetically from thoses in GenBank.

Human case of Onchocerca lupi infection, Germany, August 2014

“…So far, in contrast to canine disease [1,4,12], definitive human O. lupi infections have not been described in Europe except for two cases living in Istanbul, Turkey [5,7]. The nematode's 12S rDNA sequence here was identical to a sequence from O. lupi in dogs from Portugal, and showed 99% similarities to sequences derived from human cases in Turkey and Iran (2 nt difference each in a stretch of 375 nt and of 395 nt, respectively).…”

“…lupi is a nematode parasite infecting dogs and cats with a hitherto unknown arthropod vector, usually found in southern and central Europe and in the US; it is also being recognised as a parasite responsible for human eye infections. In dogs, nodular eye lesions with gravid females and production of microfilariae may develop [1]. The zoonotic significance of O. lupi was first highlighted in 2002 in two suspected human cases from Albania and Russia [3] that had occurred close to regions where the parasite had been described in a wolf and dogs [4].…”

“…The presumed arthropod vector for O. lupi is unknown, but might be a simuliid black fly in analogy to the biology of Onchocerca volvulus [11], the agent of human river blindness. Besides more infections reported in dogs [1,4], several human eye infections with O. lupi have been reported. Symptoms in humans and dogs are strikingly similar, involving the eye and its appendices.…”

“…O. lupi is an emerging nematode parasite found in dogs and cats in southern Europe (Portugal and Greece), central Europe (Germany and Hungary), and the United States (US) [1].…”

Aberrant laryngeal location of Onchocerca lupi in a dog

“…After its first description in the sclera of a wolf (Canis lupus) in the Republic of Georgia [2], several cases have been increasingly reported in domestic dogs worldwide, including Hungary [3], Greece [4], Germany [5], Switzerland [6], Portugal [7,8] and the USA [9,10]. Onchocerca lupi infects ocular tissues causing acute or chronic ocular lesions of different degrees, with clinical features ranging from no apparent clinical signs to blindness [1,10].…”