With its epizootiological characteristics, the territory of the municipality of Belgrade city is a potentially important locality for the maintenance and spreading of a number of serovars of Leptospira interrogans. In order to evaluate the epizootiological situation as far as animal leptospirosis in the Belgrade region is concerned, from January 2012 until June 2013 the prevalence of cat leptospirosis has been evaluated. The standard microagglutination test (MAT) was used to determine animals sero positive to different serovars that belong to L. interrogans sensu lato complex. The antigens used were: Icterohaemorrhagiae, Grippotyphosa, Pomona, Canicola, Bratislava, Batavie, Sejroe, Pyrogenes, Australis and Autumnalis. Out of the total number of tested animals, there were 43 (26.7%) positive to one, two or three serovar(s). Out of a total of 43 positive sera 20 (46.5%) samples were positive to more than one leptospira serovar.

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SummaryRegarding geographical distribution and clinical relevance, the most common canine geohelminths are Toxocara canis, ancylostomatids, and Trichuris vulpis. Canine intestinal parasites from the soil and sand present an important potential serious human health hazard, especially for the children preschool and school – age. This paper aimed to establish the degree of contamination of soil and sand with zoonotic parasites from the canine feces and the degree of risk they could pose for human health in public places and playgrounds in the city of Niš. Our parasitological study involved 200 soil samples and 50 sand samples from the public parks in the city of Niš in southeastern Serbia (43°19′15″N, 21°53′45″ E). From several locations, about 100 g of soil and sand was collected based on the bioclimatic indices. Parasitological diagnosis was performed using conventional qualitative and quantitative coprological methods, abiding by the recommendations about the diagnosis of parasitic diseases. In 38 – 46 % of soil samples and 40 % of sand samples seven species of endoparasites were diagnosed. In the samples of soil, a medium and high degree of contamination with the ascarid T. canis (14 – 22 %) was detected, as well as a low and medium degree of contamination with ancylostomatids (4 – 12 %), and in the samples of sand, a variable degree of contamination with the helminths T. canis (26 %) and A. alata (16 %) was found. A statistically significant difference was found in the contamination with A. alata eggs between the samples of sand and samples of soil. The studied public surfaces represent the reservoir of zoonotic parasites, which is a public health problem requiring a synergistic action of several factors to be successfully resolved, i.e. the implementation of prevention, surveillance, and control measures.

Thelazia callipaeda is a parasitic nematode causing ocular infections in different mammalian species and humans, clinically manifested as lacrimation, conjunctivitis, keratitis, corneal opacity or corneal ulcer. In this paper, we reported six cases of autochthonous canine and feline thelaziosis on different localities in Serbia. Total of 285 parasites (85 males and 200 females) were collected from the eyes of infected animals (n=6) suffering from uni-or bilateral conjunctivitis, with the number of parasites ranging from 7 to 150 per animal. All parasites were morphologically identifi ed as T. callipaeda, while molecular analyses of cytochrome oxidase 1 (cox1) gene revealed the presence of h1 haplotype, as the unique previously reported in other studies in Europe. Since T. callipaeda is a newly detected parasite in Serbia with the infective potential for humans, there is a necessity for animal owners education and cooperation among professional services in order to control this zoonosis.

Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by Coxiella burnetii, a gram-negative coccobacillus, which has been detected in a wide range of animal species, mostly domestic ruminants, but also in wild mammals, pets, birds, reptiles, arthropods (especially ticks), as well as in humans. Although the exposure to domestic animals in rural areas is regarded as the most common cause of the disease in humans, recent studies have shown that the role of pets in the epidemiology of Q fever has been increasingly growing. Although the primary route of infection is inhalation, it is presumed that among animals the infection circulates through ticks and that they are responsible for heterospecifi c transmission, as well as spatial dispersion among vertebrates. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and prevalence of C. burnetii in ticks removed from stray dogs, as well as to examine the distribution of tick species parasitizing dogs on the territory of Belgrade city. A PCR protocol targeting IS1111 repetitive transposon-like region of C. burnetii was used for the detection of C. burnetii DNA in ticks and the results were confi rmed by sequence analysis. In total, 316 ticks were collected from 51 stray dogs - 40 females (78.43%) and 11 males (21.57%). Three species of ticks were identifi ed: Rhipicephalus s anguineus (72.15%), Ixodes ricinus (27.53%) and Dermacentor reticulatus (0.32%). Out of 316 examined ticks, C. burnetii DNA was detected only in the brown dog tick R. sanguineus, with a total prevalence of 10.53% (24/228) . The high prevalence of C. burnetii in R. sanguineus, which is primarily a dog tick, indicates the importance of dogs in the epidemiology of Q fever in the territory of Belgrade.