Gastrointestinal helminths in dog feces surrounding suburban areas of Lower Dir district, Pakistan: A public health threat

Abstract

Data on environmental contamination of the parasites of zoonotic importance is scarce in Pakistan. Soil contamination with feces of dogs hide infective stages of the parasite represents a health-risk to humans. This study was aimed to assess the eggs of gastrointestinal parasites of stray dogs and household dogs in lower Dir district, Pakistan with special consideration to those that can be spread to humans. One hundred and fifty two stool specimens from (stray dogs=90 and household dogs=62) were collected. The helminth eggs were processed by direct smear method and centrifugation techniques and identified by microscopic examination. Of the total examined dogs 26.8% (n=41 /152) were found to be infected with one or more intestinal parasites. The intestinal helminths detected were Dipylidium caninum (n =18, 11.8%), followed by Toxocara canis (n =16, 10.5%), Taenia spp., (n=10, 6.57%) Ancylostoma caninum (n=6, 3.94), Toxascaris spp., Capillaria spp., and Trichuris vulpis (n=2, 1.31% each) in order of their prevalence. Pattern of infection revealed that 27 (65.8%) dogs have single, 13(31.7%) double and 1(2.43%) triple infection. The stray dogs were highly infected 34.4% (n=31) than house hold dogs 16.1% (n=10). The prevalence of infection with intestinal parasites was significantly different among these two groups (p = 0.0097). This study highlight a severe environmental contamination by frequent parasitic stages infectious to humans. There is a higher risk of zoonotic transmission from dogs which indicate an immediate need for the controlling of these parasites and educating the public to take wise action relating to the parasites and pets.

Helminth infections in dogs in Phu Tho Province, northern Vietnam

“…Co-infection with hookworms and D. caninum was most common. In comparison to this study, more dogs in Canada, Hungary and Pakistan were found to have co-infections with two helminth species, while in Tanzania and Australia co-infections were less common ( Khan et al., 2020 ). Finally, no trematode species were detected, while in Nam Dinh Province 56.9% of dogs were found infected with fish-borne trematodes, including Clonorchis sinensis and minute intestinal flukes ( Nguyen et al., 2009 ).…”

The Prevalence of Canine Dipylidiasis in Baghdad city, Iraq‎ ‎

“…Sixteen out of 108 (14.81%) fecal samples were found infected with D. caninum in different areas of Baghdad city (Table 1). The highest infection rate was 20.37% (11/54) found in stray dogs, while the lowest was 9.26% (5/54) in pet dogs, with a significant difference (P<0.01) Our estimation of D. caninum infection was similar to recorded 14.8% (59/400) from Nigeria (13), also 18.7% SALIH DA AND ABASS AK (18/96) in Nigeria (20), and 11.8% (18/152) in Pakistan (21). While the study's results were lower than the one in Palestine, which was 23% (35/150) ( 14) which was higher than the 1% (1/77) reported in Iran (22).…”

Occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites in dogs from Cuiabá, Mato Grosso

“…Around the world, there are some reports of gastrointestinal parasitism in dogs, and the frequencies of the parasites detected were 26.5% (80/302) in Villahermosa, Mexico (Torres-Chablé et al, 2015); 40% (120/300) in Central Queensland, Australia (Gillespie & Bradbury, 2017); 26.8% (41/152) on the Lower Dir district, Pakistan (Khan et al, 2020); 63.5% (148/233) in northern Spain (Regidor-Cerrillo et al, 2020); and 11.9% (43/360) on the Shendi area, Sudan (Sulieman et al, 2020). Likewise, different occurrences are reported in Brazil, 20.5% (635/3099) in São Paulo (Ferreira et al, 2016); 43.2% (147/340) on the northeastern region (Zanetti et al, 2019); 72.55% (74/102) in Caxias do Sul (Lusa et al, 2021); and 87.5% (35/40) in Porto Velho (Lopes et al, 2021).…”