Abstract
Canine angiostrongylosis by Angiostrongylus vasorum is increasingly reported in both enzootic and previously free areas. The complex pathogenesis of the disease makes the clinical workup challenging. Infected dogs show highly variable clinical pictures, characterized by subclinical to life-threatening general, cardio-respiratory, neurological and/or gastrointestinal signs. The present study reports the high variability of clinical pictures from 36 dogs across central and southern Italy that were naturally infected by A. vasorum. Of them, 23 (63.9%) presented at least one clinical sign, while 13 (36.1%) were subclinically infected and apparently healthy. Overall, 19 dogs (52.8%) showed cardiorespiratory signs, 14 (38.9%) had non-specific abnormalities, 2 (5.6%) presented coagulation disorders and 1 (2.8%) had a severe neurological condition. Importantly, four dogs presenting with clinical signs had neither cough nor dyspnea. These results underline that angiostrongylosis should be included in the differential diagnosis, even when dogs display only non-specific clinical signs. The proportion of apparently healthy dogs highlights the relevance of routine copromicroscopic and/or antigenic tests in enzootic areas to avoid the sudden onset of potentially life-threatening signs.
Highlights
The infection of companion animals with nematodes of the genus Angiostrongylus has recently gained attention in small animal clinical practices
The age of the infected dogs ranged from 4 months to 14 years
These data show that canine angiostrongylosis occurs with multiple and highly variable clinical presentations, and that the absence of cardio-respiratory signs should not preclude the inclusion of A. vasorum as a differential diagnosis in enzootic areas
Summary
The infection of companion animals with nematodes of the genus Angiostrongylus has recently gained attention in small animal clinical practices. A. vasorum females lay eggs that hatch and release first stage larvae (L1), which penetrate the alveolar/bronchial walls, reach the pharynx and are swallowed and excreted with feces in the environment [9]. Dogs become infected ingesting either the intermediate (i.e., slugs and snails) or paratenic hosts (i.e., frogs and poultry) harboring the infective third stage larvae (L3) [7,10,11]. There is a recent hypothesis that dogs may acquire angiostrongylosis potentially via ingestion of infective L3 shed by slugs or snails onto vegetation in the environment [12]
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