Presence of Toxocara spp. in domestic cats in the State of Mexico
Gallegos, Lucila Marilú RodríguezNúñez, Camilo RomeroGómez, Linda Guiliana BautistaCastañeda, José Simón MartínezCardenas, Rafael Heredia
Background: Toxocara spp. is a gastrointestinal nematode with cosmopolitan distribution and is the most common parasite in domestic cats, which can deposit fertilized eggs in the environment with feces. Egg maturation starts in the soil, concluding two to three weeks after cat defecation, but eggs can remain viable in the soil for years and spread onto vegetables and into water. Infection of cats and paratenic hosts (among them humans) occurs through ingestion of infected eggs from the environment, through ingestion of paratenic hosts and, in puppies, through milk from infected mothers. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the presence of Toxocara spp. in domestic cats. Materials Methods & Results: In this study, 229 fecal samples from domestic cats were collected in the state of Mexico, Mexico. All of cats had an owner, and fresh feline feces were collected in previously labeled sterile bottles. Coproparasitological examinations were performed on these samples using a flotation technique with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium nitrate (NaNO3), Toxocara spp. eggs were identified under the microscope, in accordance with the morphological descriptions. The data were analyzed by means of Fishers exact test in order to compare the presence of Toxocara eggs according to cat age and sex. The chi-square test was used to determine associations between variables [...](AU)
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