Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How to detect hidden intestinal worm infections in dogs
By Adolph, Chris et al.·Published in Veterinary parasitology·2017·Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Diagnostic strategies to reveal covert infections with intestinal helminths in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 97 adult dogs from animal shelters in Oklahoma were tested for hidden intestinal worm infections, which are common but often missed during routine fecal tests. The study found that traditional fecal flotation methods only detected a fraction of the infections, while combining these tests with a special antigen detection method significantly improved the identification of worms like Ancylostoma caninum and Toxocara canis. This means that if your dog is showing symptoms like weight loss, diarrhea, or a bloated stomach, a more thorough testing approach could help find and treat these infections more effectively.
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Abstract
Intestinal helminths are common in dogs in the United States, particularly non-treated dogs in animal shelters, but surveys by fecal flotation may underestimate their prevalence. To determine the prevalence of intestinal helminths and evaluate the ability of fecal flotation and detection of nematode antigen to identify those infections, contents of the entire gastrointestinal tract of 97 adult (>1year) dogs previously identified for humane euthanasia at two animal control shelters in northeastern Oklahoma, USA, were screened. All helminths recovered were washed in saline and fixed prior to enumeration and identification to genus and species. Fecal samples from each dog were examined by passive sodium nitrate (SG 1.33) and centrifugal sugar solution (SG 1.25) flotation. Fecal antigen detection assays were used to confirm the presence of nematode antigen in frozen fecal samples from 92 dogs. Necropsy examination revealed Ancylostoma caninum in 45/97 (46.4%), Toxocara canis in 11/97 (11.3%), Trichuris vulpis in 38/97 (39.2%), Dipylidium caninum in 48/97 (49.5%), and Taenia sp. in 7/97 (7.2%) dogs. Passive fecal flotation identified 38/45 (84.4%) A. caninum, 6/11 (54.5%) T. canis, 26/38 (68.4%) T. vulpis, 2/48 (4.2%) D. caninum, and 1/7 (14.3%) Taenia sp. infections, while centrifugal flotation combined with antigen detection assays identified A. caninum in 97.7% (43/44), T. canis in 77.8% (7/9), and T. vulpis in 83.3% (30/36) of infected dogs based on necropsy recovery of nematodes. Taken together, these data indicate that detection of nematode antigen is a useful adjunct to microscopic examination of fecal samples for parasite eggs, and that this approach can improve diagnostic sensitivity for intestinal nematode infections in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29080756/