Epizootiological-epidemiological importance of parasitic infections in wild canids

Abstract

The family of wild canids belongs to the order Carnivora and comprises 16 genuses that are distributed in most countries all over the world. The most important endoparasitic diseases of wild canids are toxocariasis, uncinariasis, capillariasis, trichinellosis, echinococcosis, cestodiasis, opisthorchiasis, and alariasis. Ectoparasites that most often exist as parasites in wild canids are mites, fleas, ticks and scabies.Wild canids have a large epizootiological-epidemiological significance since they are hosts to parasites that cause certain vector diseases, the most important of which are leishmaniasis, ehrilichiosis, babesiasis, borreliosis, dirofilariasis, bartonellosis, and hepatozoonosis. The increased frequency of interaction between domestic and wild canids steps up the risk of the appearance, spread, and maintaining of the disease in domestic dog populations. Observed from the aspect of the biological and ecological risk, that can be caused by zoonotic infections, the knowledge of the etiology and epizootiology of parasistic infections of wild canids is of particular importance for the region of the Republic of Serbia.