Abstract
Dirofilariasis is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused mainly by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens that affect dogs and humans all over the world. Serbia is considered an endemic country to both forms of dirofilariasis, although most of the population is concentrated in the north of the country. The aims of this study were to show the prevalence of D. immitis and D. repens in dogs and the seroprevalence in humans compared to previous studies in Northern Serbia. In total, 346 dog sera samples and 265 human samples were analyzed. Dog blood samples were analyzed using the modified Knott's method to check whether there were Dirofilaria spp. microfilariae and serum samples were checked by a commercial D. immitis antigen test. Human serum samples were analyzed with a non-commercial ELISA for detection of specific anti-D. immitis, anti-D. repens, and anti-Wolbachia IgG antibodies, and confirmed by western blotting. The overall prevalence for Dirofilaria spp. in dogs was 29.19%. The overall prevalence for D. immitis was 26.30%. The percentages of D. immitis and D. repens microfilaremia in dogs were 25.72 and 1.45%, respectively, while D. immitis./D. repens microfilaremia co-infections were also 1.45%. The overall seroprevalence for Dirofilaria spp. in humans was 3.77%. The overall seroprevalence for D. immitis was 1.51, 1.13% for D. repens, and for D. immitis/D. repens co-infections was 1.13%. The results indicate that D. immitis and D. repens are present in dogs and humans in the province of Vojvodina, in the northern part of Serbia. It is most likely associated with the presence of many rivers, the climate, and presence of mosquitoes in the area, so there could be a real public health risk.
Highlights
Dirofilariasis is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused mainly by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens
The cut-off point (OD = 0.8 for DiSA and DrSA and 0.5 for recombinant form of the Wolbachia Surface Protein (rWSP)) was determined by calculating the mean value + 3 standard deviations (3SD) of 50 serum samples obtained from dogs and clinically healthy humans who belonged to an area free of
There are significant differences between the prevalence for D. immitis infected male and female dogs with a higher prevalence in male dogs, whereas the prevalence of D. repens was higher in females (p < 0.05)
Summary
Dirofilariasis is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused mainly by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens. Dirofilaria immitis causes heartworm disease in canines and pulmonary dirofilariasis in humans, whereas D. repens causes canine subcutaneous dirofilariasis and ocular/subcutaneous dirofilariasis in humans Both parasites are transmitted by culicid mosquitoes, which inoculate larva 3 into definitive hosts in both animals and humans. The adult worms are usually beneath the skin forming a subcutaneous nodule. In both cases, microfilariae circulate in the blood stream and are ingested by several species of mosquito vectors during their blood-feeding [3] and after two successive molts, during the blood meal [4], stage-3 larvae are inoculated into the definitive host. This bacteria participates in the parasite’s life cycle and embryogenesis and plays a key role in the immune and inflammatory response of the organism to the disease [4, 8,9,10]
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