Prevalence of Taeniid eggs in the Feces of Stray Dogs Collected from Different Location of Zakho city, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

Abstract

Iraq is an endemic country for cystic echinococcosis (CE). This disease is zoonotic infection with a widespread distribution among livestock and humans. The adult parasite inhabits the small intestine of dogs especially stray dogs, their eggs are excreted with the feces to the environment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Taeniid eggs and other intestinal parasites in the feces of stray dogs collected from different location of Zakho city. The study was conducted during the period from March 2020 to March 2021, in which 160 fecal samples of stray dogs were collected from soil surface of 10 different location in Zakho city. The feces were examined by direct wet mount and flotation technique to detect the presence of parasitic eggs and then the data were statistically analyzed. The overall, rate of infection was 46.25% (74/160) of examined fecal samples. The most frequently detected eggs were of Taeniid spp. constituting 23.13% (37/160) of the examined stool samples, with the highest rate (42.86%) being in samples collected from the areas around Zakho abattoir. Furthermore, other parasites recorded in this study, were Oxyurid spp. larvae (8.13%) and eggs of Dipylidium caninum (5%), Stronglodies stercoralis (5%), Toxocara spp. (4.38%) and Hymenolepis nana (0.63%).