Canine ocular onchocercosis in the United States is associated with Onchocerca lupi

Canine Infections withOnchocerca lupiNematodes, United States, 2011–2014

“…in California and Utah ( 8 , 9 ) or as O. lienalis in Arizona ( 10 ). Recent etiologic delineation of O. lupi nematodes in dogs and cats in southwestern states ( 4 , 11 , 12 ) suggested involvement of this parasite in previous cases.…”

“…In addition, this parasite has been extracted from the cervical channel of a 22-month-old child in Arizona ( 12 ). Information on the epidemiology and life history of O. lupi nematodes is still minimal, and data on its distribution in the United States is limited to 6 case reports ( 4 , 11 ). …”

Diagnostic challenges and the unwritten stories of dog and cat parasites

“…This infestation has been occasionally reported in symptomatic dogs from Hungary, Greece, Germany and Portugal (Széll et al, 2001;Komnenou et al, 2002;Faísca et al, 2010;Hermosilla et al, 2005;Sallo et al, 2005) and, more recently, in dogs and cats from Arizona and Colorado, the United States (Labelle et al, 2011(Labelle et al, , 2013. Since the first report of human ocular infestation in 2011 (Otranto et al, 2011b), within less than four years, up to 10 human cases of O. lupi have subsequently been described in patients from Germany (Bergua et al, 2015), Turkey (Otranto et al, 2011b;Ilhan et al, 2013), Tunisia , Iran (Mowlavi et al, 2013) and the United States (Eberhard et al, 2013;Dudley et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2015), which has stimulated the interest of the scientific community on this parasite.…”

Zoonotic Onchocerca lupi Infection in a 22-Month-Old Child in Arizona: First Report in the United States and a Review of the Literature

“…All of the infections in cats and dogs are now attributed to O. lupi; there has been recent molecular confirmation of the species identification for several of these cases. 33 In two of the previous cases reported in people, O. lupi can be excluded because of the multiple striae per ridge, 4,8 whereas in one case 20 because of the immature nature of the worm, species identification was not possible. This case in a young child represents the first definitively identified case of zoonotic O. lupi in the United States.…”