Prevalence of intestinal parasites with zoonotic potential in canids in Mexico City
Romero, CamiloMendonza, Germán EduardoPineda, Miguel AngelNava, NadyeliBautista, Linda GuilianaHeredia, Rafael
Background: In Mexico City, there are 1.2 million dogs of which 10% are strays, which produce about 182 tons of feces per year. Among the intestinal parasites with zoonotic risk from dogs are Ancylostoma, Toxocara, Giardia and Dipylidium. These pathogens can be found in standard human environments, such as water, soil, food, parks, and contamination from dog feces, and represent a high risk to persons. Therefore it is important to promote prophylactic measures, which are based on hygiene, having pet deworming programs and control of stray dogs. The objective was identifying Toxocara spp., Giardia spp., Dipylidium caninum, Ancylostoma spp. and Coccidia in canids from the downtown area of Mexico City.Materials, Methods & Results: The study was conducted in Mexico City. A total of 1603 pet feces were collected and were classified according to gender and age (young animals < 1 year and adults > 1.1 years). Microscopic diagnosis of parasites was achieved using the flotation technique of Willis. The proportion of contamination was considered as the percentage of positive samples out of all collected samples. The number of parasite eggs in each sample was counted, and eggs were then identified by structure and morphometry, to provide an additional measure of the degree of parasitization (number of eggs g-1 feces). Prevalence was analyzed using the Chi-square (χ²) test to compare age groups and gender, while the average number of parasites per gram of feces was analyzed using a t test with a confidence level of P < 0.05. The results showed that 13.10% (210) of the dogs were positive for some type of gastrointestinal parasite (Toxocara spp., Coccidia, Ancylostoma spp., Giardia spp., Dipylidium caninum) of which 115 (13.18%) were males and 95 (12.99%) females, with no gender difference (χ² = 0.013, P = 0.99). Giardia spp. was found in 25 young animals (6.9%) and 50 adults (4.0 %) whereas Toxocara spp. was less common (3.3% of young animals and 3.7% of adults).[...](AU)
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