Prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in dogs from Hatay province, Turkey

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of canine dirofilariosis in Hatay province, south of Turkey. A total of 269 blood samples were collected from owned dogs in this multi-centre survey between March and July 2006. Blood samples were examined by modified Knott and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques to detect circulating microfilariae and antigens of Dirofilaria immitis, respectively. Seventy out of 269 dogs (26.0%) were positive for D. immitis. However, 61.4% of positive dogs had occult infection. The prevalence of canine dirofilariosis was heterogeneous in Hatay province, with higher values in shoreline (33.0%) and riverside (30.9%) areas followed by the lowland (25.5%) or mountainous (15.2%) areas. No statistically significant differences were observed in relation to sex (females, 33.3%; males, 24.4%, P>0.05). When evaluating the prevalence of D. immitis by age, the highest prevalence was observed in dogs older than 4 years of age. Large breeds (29.6%) and the dogs living outdoors (30.2%) showed a higher prevalence in comparison to small breeds (21.4%) and the dogs living indoors (10.5%), respectively. In conclusion, according to the results of this study canine dirofilariosis had a high prevalence in Hatay province. Therefore, prophylaxis against heartworm is advisable to decrease the incidence of canine dirofilariosis.

Türkiye’nin Trakya Bölgesindeki Barınak Köpeklerinde Kalp Kurdu Hastalığının Serolojik ve Moleküler Prevalansı

“…The seroprevalence was 2% in Şanlıurfa [28] and 2.4% in Diyarbakır [29] which were lower than this study (6.7%). Considering the other provinces, the seroprevalence was found to be 9.1 % in Elazıg [30] , 9.3% in Ankara [31] , 9.6% in Kayseri [32] , 17.8% in Van [33] , 26% in Hatay [34] , 34.5% in Kırıkkale [35] , 40% in Igdır [36] , 46.2% in Van [14] which were higher than the seroprevalence determined in the current study. There are limited studies on the diagnosis of this nematode in dogs by molecular techniques in Turkey.…”

“…It was reported that the prevalence of D. immitis was higher in outdoor, stray and suburban dog population than the indoor, owned and urban dogs [9,33,34] . Parallel to these reports, the dog population was consisting of stray dogs which were living in shelters in the present study.…”

“…Occult infection rates were reported as 61.4% [34] , 36.1% [37] , 35.5% [42] , 29.6% [32] and 27.5% [35] in other studies conducted in Turkey. The high rate of occult infections (59.3%) was also observed in this study.…”

“…The high rate of occult infections (59.3%) was also observed in this study. The reason of this high rate could be attributed to the low parasite burden, the presence of only the same genders of nematodes in the host, the prepatent infection or the treatment with a microfilaricide in the area which were also mentioned by several researchers [4,32,34] . The time of the blood collection in this study might also affect the results of the microfilariae detection assays.…”

Human and Animal Dirofilariasis: the Emergence of a Zoonotic Mosaic

“…S1 in the supplemental material) (108,123,126,149,312,319,332,349,398,409,410,455,459). Cases of dirofilariasis were first reported in southern Switzerland in 1995 (109).…”