Automated Diagnosis of Canine Gastrointestinal Parasites Using Image Analysis.

Sandra Valéria Inácio,Bianca Martins Dos Santos,Walter Bertequini Nagata,Graziella Borges Alves,Saulo Hudson Nery Loiola,Alexandre Xavier Falcão,Celso Tetsuo Nagase Suzuki,Jancarlo Ferreira Gomes,Katia Denise Saraiva Bresciani,Stefani Laryssa Rosa,Felipe Augusto Soares,Carolina Beatriz Baptista

doi:10.3390/pathogens9020139

Sandra Valéria Inácio, Bianca Martins Dos Santos + Show 10 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9020139

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Abstract

Because canine intestinal parasites are considered cosmopolitan, they carry significant zoonotic potential to public health. These etiological agents are routinely diagnosed using microscopic examination commonly used because of its low cost, simple execution, and direct evidence. However, there are reports in the literature on the poor performance of this test due to low to moderate sensitivity resulting from frequent errors, procedures and interpretation. Therefore, to improve the diagnostic efficiency of microscopic examination in veterinary medicine, we developed and evaluated a unique new protocol. This system was tested in a study involving four genera of highly prevalent canine intestinal parasites in an endemic region in São Paulo state, Brazil. Fecal samples from 104 animals were collected for this research. The new protocol had a significantly higher (p < 0.0001) number of positive cases on image data, including parasites and impurities, and was elaborate to test them with the TF-GII/Dog technique, with a moderate agreement and Kappa index of 0.7636. We concluded that the new Prototic Coproparasitological Test for Dogs (PC-Test Dog) allowed a better visualization of the parasitic structures and showed a favorable result for the diagnosis of intestinal parasites in dogs.

Highlights

Because canine intestinal parasites are considered cosmopolitan, they present a significant zoonotic threat to public health [1,2]
The data presented in this study demonstrated that the PC-TEST DOG, in partial agreement with DAPI, were able to identify efficiently four genera of intestinal parasites—Giardia spp. cysts and Trichuris spp., Ancylostoma spp. and Toxocara spp. eggs—present in the fecal matter of dogs (Table 2)
We concluded in this study that PC-TEST DOG in combination with DAPI is the better protocol for computational image segmentation while detecting clean parasites structures

Summary

Introduction

Because canine intestinal parasites are considered cosmopolitan, they present a significant zoonotic threat to public health [1,2]. Among the three genera of multicellular parasites mentioned above, the Toxocara canis species is the most prevalent in pet dogs, presenting as the most frequent clinical symptoms diarrhea, flatulence, abdominal distension, dehydration, and developmental delay [5,6]. This parasitic species is considered of great epidemiological importance because it enables the transmission of Visceral Larva Migrans (VLM) and the special variant, Ocular Larva Migrans (OLM), between dogs and humans. Symptoms of Pathogens 2020, 9, 139; doi:10.3390/pathogens9020139 www.mdpi.com/journal/pathogens

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