Abstract
The objective of this study was to establish the density of infestation of slum dogs with gastrointestinal helminths in locations where vaccination and deworming campaigns had been carried out for a period of 3 years. A total of 150 dogs were randomly sampled from a total of 300 animals that were attended to in a rabies control campaign in Nairobi slum areas between the months of July and September, 2011. Eggs per gram (EPG) and worm identification were done from the fecal samples of the animals included in the study and the prevalence on age, sex and breed were also determined. The EPG were generally high for both hookworms and ascarids with a range of 1083 to 1105 and 515 to 637, respectively. The larvae of the most prevalent species identified were Ancylostoma caninum and Toxocara canis. There was no statistical significant difference (P=0.9) between EPG counts in males and females at p<0.05. The prevalence was high among the puppies at 58.8% (44/75) as compared to the adult dogs at 38.3% (29/75) when P = 0.01. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that the density of infestation of stray slum dogs with gastrointestinal worms was high and therefore there is need to address routine and strategic deworming. Key words: Prevalence, helminths, dogs, Kenya.
Highlights
Stray dogs according to the OIE (2009) are defined as any free roaming dog not under direct control or restriction at a particular time or a free roaming dog with no owner
The mean Eggs per gram (EPG) for dogs infested by hookworms was 1105, while ascarids were 636.4
The most prevalent gastrointestinal nematode in dogs was the hookworm at an average of 1105.0 EPG of feces, ascarids at an average of 636.4 EPG of feces and an average of 300.0 EPG of feces for whipworms
Summary
Stray dogs according to the OIE (2009) are defined as any free roaming dog not under direct control or restriction at a particular time or a free roaming dog with no owner. Strays may include the quasi-owned animals that are cared for or considered to belong to the “neighbourhood” (Childs et al, 1998). Stray dogs pose several public health risks and concerns to humans, such as rabies (Reyers et al, 1998; Crosby, 2011), toxocariasis and ancylostomiasis (Croese et al, 1994; Prociv and Croese 1996; Singla et al, 2005; Chen et al., 2012), hydatidosis (Buishi et al, 2006), acquired epilepsy due to neurocysticercosis (Sharma et al, 2011), leishmaniasis, borreliosis, bartonellosis, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis (Day, 2011; Singla et al, 2011), and schistosomiasis (Hackett and Lappin, 2003).
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