Abstract
Pets play a pivotal role as definitive or reservoir hosts for many zoonotic parasites. Dogs and cats without any clinical signs may be a carrier for the infection. In a one-year study, collected fecal samples of 257 dogs and 50 cats were examined coproscopically for endoparasite infections. Out of 307 investigated fecal samples, 107 (34.9%) were positive for the presence of the propagative stages of endoparasites In 257 dogs fecal samples, following 12 different species of endoparasites were detected: Giardia duodenalis, Cystoisospora spp., Sarcocystis spp., Hammondia/Neospora-like eggs, Angiostrongylus vasorum larvae, Capillaria aerophila, Crenosoma vulpis, Toxocara spp., Toxascaris leonina, Trichuris vulpis, Strongyloides stercoralis, and eggs from the family Ancylostomatidae. Only 4 different parasitic species were found in 50 domestic cat fecal samples – G. duodenalis cysts Cystoisospora spp., T. cati, and larvae of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus. It was confirmed that significant differences were found concerning age for G. duodenalis, T. canis, S. stercoralis, and family Ancylostomatidae. Close and frequent contact between pets and people increases the risks for the transmission of zoonotic diseases.
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Data availability
The datasets in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic, by support from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, VEGA no. 2/0138/21 and The Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract no. APVV-18–0351.
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Conceptualization—IP and JŠo; methodology—JŠ and IP; formal analysis—JŠ, IP, JT, and LT; investigation—JŠ, IP and ĽŠ; resources—IP; data duration—JB and IP; original draft preparation—JŠ and IP; review and editing—JŠ, IP, JŠo and VŠ; supervision—IP; project administration—IP; funding acquisition—IP. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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Šmigová, J., Papajová, I., Šoltys, J. et al. The occurence of endoparasites in Slovakian household dogs and cats. Vet Res Commun 45, 243–249 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09804-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09804-4