Abstract

  The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Toxocara canis in street and pet dogs in Kathmandu valley and to understand the associated risk factors for Toxocara canis (T. canis) infestations in dogs and to assess the awareness on canine helminth zoonoses among pet owners. A cross-sectional study was carried out from February to April 2019 within Kathmandu valley, Nepal. A total of 110 faecal samples were randomly collected from 55 pet and street dogs each per-rectally via the faecal loop. Wisconsin centrifugation flotation method was used to examine the presence of T. canis eggs. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 55 dog owners. Descriptive statistics were calculated using IBM © SPSS statistics version 22 and MS-Excel 2016. We found that 13.64% dogs (15/110) were found for T. canis. Comparatively, prevalence was higher in stray dogs than in pet dogs (20% versus 7.27%); dogs below one year 13.95%; in female dogs 15.63%; in dog getting in contact with other dogs 10.53%; in non-dewormed dogs 23.08%. Out of 55 pet owners surveyed, 41.82% were aware that they can get diseases from dogs but only 14.55% of the owners had some idea about canine helminth zoonoses. T. canis being the parasite having high zoonotic significance, there is a need to carry out awareness programs to educate pet owners regarding canine zoonoses and on appropriate anthelmintic treatment. A viable system should be in place to maintain stray dogs such as animal birth control programs which will help to reduce the prevalence of T. canis among street dogs.

Keywords: Canine Zoonoses; Faecal; Flotation; Treatment; Awareness

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Citation

Citation: Sabina Lamsal and Rakesh Prajapati. “Study on Prevalence of Toxocara canis in Stray and Pet Dogs of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 2.9 (2020): 02-05.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Sabina Lamsal and Rakesh Prajapati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.