Dioctophyme renale: prevalence and risk factors of parasitism in dogs of São Cristóvão district, Três Barras county, Santa Catarina State, Brazil

Abstract

Dioctophyme renale is a nematode that can be found parasitizing the kidney, peritoneal cavity and, rarely, other organs of canids and mustelids. This disease has high occurrence in the municipality of Três Barras, state of Santa Catarina, thus making this an interesting area to study the epidemiological aspects of infection by D. renale in dogs. Among 197 dogs, 14.2% showed the parasite eggs in urine and 16.4% showed IgG antibodies anti-D. renale in serum samples according to the indirect ELISA method; among seropositive dogs, 15 (37.5%) animals did not show any parasite eggs in their urine. Parasitism was more frequent in females, and there was no finding of interference from age on parasitism. Factors such as water potential and presence of paratenic hosts in the studied region were reported by the owners of dogs and may have contributed to the occurrence of parasitism.Keywords: Kidney worm, Dioctophyme renale, epidemiology, ELISA. ResumoDioctophyme renale é nematoda parasita de rins, cavidade peritoneal e, mais raramente, de outros órgãos de canídeos e mustelídeos. Esta parasitose tem ocorrência elevada no Município de Três Barras -SC, tornando essa área interessante para o estudo de aspectos epidemiológicos da infecção por D. renale em cães. De 197 cães examinados, 14,2% apresentaram ovos do parasita na urina e 16,4% apresentaram anticorpos IgG anti-D. renale no soro pelo método de ELISA indireto e, entre estes, 15 (37,5%) não apresentavam ovos do parasita sendo eliminados pela urina. O parasitismo foi mais frequente nas fêmeas, e não houve constatação de interferência da idade no parasitismo. Fatores como potencial hídrico e presença de hospedeiros paratênicos na região estudada foram relatados pelos tutores dos cães e podem contribuir para a ocorrência do parasitismo.Palavras-chave: Verme renal, Dioctophyme renale, epidemiologia, ELISA.

Occurrence of dioctophymosis in canines within a riparian zone of the Río de La Plata watercourse, in Ensenada, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

“…In contrast to the findings of Pedrassani et al (2017) in the present work no statistically significant association of this parasitosis with sex of the dogs was observed -even though a greater number of females had been infected. Moreover, other authors have indicated a greater prevalence of dioctophymosis in males (Mace and Anderson, 1975;Colpo et al, 2007).…”

“…Moriena and Ferri (1989) Coppo and Brem (1983), in a study of necropsied canines, found no case among 64 dogs in Corrientes and 7.9% among 38 assayed in Resistencia. Several authors mention similar cases in Brazil (Pedrassani and Camargo, 2004;Camargo et al, 2005;Pereira et al, 2006;Colpo et al, 2007;Pedrassani, 2009;Pedrassani et al, 2017).…”

“…In the present work, it was determined a statistically significant association between various symptoms and habits considered as risk factors -e. g., fatigue, hematuria (symptoms), swimming in the river, eating frogs, eels or fish, drinking ditch water (habits) -and the occurrence of dioctophymosis. Those habits are known to be characteristic of a vulnerable canine subpopulation in which the dogs run loose on the streets, have unselective eating habits, and drink ditch water (Pedrassani et al, 2017).…”

Giant kidney worm: novel report of Dioctophyma renale in the kidney of a dog in Greece

“…The majority of reported cases come from the cold temperate regions where freshwater is available, as its life cycle requires an aquatic environment. Brazil is the country with the highest number of reported D. renale cases in domestic dogs with prevalence rates up to 14.2% (Ferreira et al, 2010;Nakagawa et al, 2007;Pedrassani et al, 2017;Rappeti et al, 2017). Canine dioctophymatosis has also been reported recently in other Latin America countries, such as Colombia (Florez et al, 2018) and Argentina (Radman et al, 2017).…”

“…In each of the above-mentioned scenarios, the definitive host becomes infected by ingesting the fourth-(infective) stage larvae. Inside the definitive host, the Dioctophyma larva penetrates the intestinal or duodenal mucosa, enters the peritoneal cavity and migrates to the kidney, where it develops and matures into the adult form (Bowman, 2014;Pedrassani et al, 2017). Adults are able to live up to 3 years in the definitive host and the fertilized eggs that are shed into the environment may survive for up to 5 years (Radman et al, 2017).…”