Intestinal parasites of zoonotic importance in dogs from the District of General Pueyrredón, Buenos Aires, Argentina

LAVALLÉN C.M.; DOPCHIZ M.C.; LOBIANCO E.; HOLLMANN P.; DENEGRI G.M.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; I Congreso Internacional de Zoonosis y Enfermedades Emergentes, VII Congreso Argentino de Zoonosis; 2011

Asociació Argentina de Zoonosis

Introduction Dog faeces harbouring infective parasitic forms (larves, eggs, cysts and oocysts of helminths and protozoan) are potential sources of environmental contamination representing a high risk of infection for people and therefore have been recognized as a significant public health problem worldwide. In Mar del Plata city there are between 10.000-12.000 stray dogs and one domesticated dog each four or five inhabitants. This situation generates a huge contamination of the city with dog faeces Objectives To determine the prevalence of parasites in faeces of dogs being kept in the Municipal Centre of Zoonoses of Mar del Plata city by coprological procedures and coproantigen tests. We evaluated parasite prevalences regarding the gender, age, origin of the dogs and mixed infections. Materials and Methods The faeces of 46 dogs being kept in the MCZ of Mar del Plata city were collected in duplicate between May and June 2004. One group of samples was processed by Ritchie and Sheather methods. The samples processed by the Ritchie method were stained by the Modified Ziehl Neelsen and Modified Safranin techniques for the identification of coccidians oocysts. All the samples were microscopically examined. The other group of samples was used to perform the Copro-ELISA test and the Copro-WESTERN BLOT test to the coproantigen determination of Echinococcus granulosus. Data analysis was performed using EpiInfo 3.3.2 (CDC, Atlanta, USA) and SPSS 11.5. The comparisons of prevalences between dichotomous categories were made using the Fisher Exact test. Results The overall prevalence of parasites was 89.13%. The parasites detected were Ancylostoma caninum (71.74%), Toxocara canis (63.04%), Trichuris vulpis (45.65%), Uncinaria stenocephala (41.30%), Capillaria aerophila (17.39%), Echinococcus granulosus (8.69%), Giardia spp. (10.87%) and Isospora spp. (2.17%). The prevalence of stray and domesticated dogs infected was 88% and 95.24%. The overall prevalence and the specific prevalence were similar between the genders. The prevalences of A. caninum and T. vulpis were significantly higher in < 6 years-old dogs than in older dogs. Multiple infections were more frequent (80%) than infections with a single parasite (20%) and the most common parasite association (21.87%) was between A. caninum, T. vulpis, T. canis and U. stenocephala. Conclusions Researches about the socio-economic standard of living in the region under study had showed that 33% of the population is found in a poor socio-environmental condition. This situation added to the geographical characteristics, the wet weather of the region and the cultural habits of the population can be favorable to parasite transmission. Because stray dogs are often free-roaming, environmental contamination with parasite forms had likely already occurred. Parasite-specific immunity is usually acquired with age, probably as a consequence of single or repeated exposures The high prevalence of poly-parasitized animals added to the zoonotic potential of the parasites found in the samples, mean that dog faeces could be the source of several parasites infections for the human and canine population of the region under study. The parasite zoonoses transmitted by dogs is still a sanitary problem in the district of General Pueyrredón.