Abstract
Presently, 45% of the total human population of Europe, as well as their domestic and companion animals, are exposed to the risk of vector-borne helminths (VBH) causing diseases. A plethora of intrinsic biological and extrinsic factors affect the relationship among helminths, vectors and animal hosts, in a constantly changing environment. Although canine dirofilarioses by Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens are key examples of the success of VBH spreading into non-endemic areas, another example is represented by Thelazia callipaeda eyeworm, an emergent pathogen of dogs, cats and humans in several regions of Europe. The recent finding of Onchocerca lupi causing canine and human infestation in Europe and overseas renders the picture of VBH even more complicated. Similarly, tick-transmitted filarioids of the genus Cercopithifilaria infesting the skin of dogs were recently shown to be widespread in Europe. Although for most of the VBH above there is an increasing accumulation of research data on their distribution at national level, the overall impact of the diseases they cause in dogs and humans is not fully recognised in many aspects. This review investigates the reasons underlying the increasing trend in distribution of VBH in Europe and discusses the diagnostic and control strategies currently available. In addition, this article provides the authors’ opinion on some topics related to VBH that would deserve further scientific investigation.
Highlights
A large number of vector-borne helminths (VBH) are prevalent in Europe, and some of them are of growing importance due to the significant level of disease they cause in dogs and humans [1,2,3]
This review aims at investigating the main reasons underlying the increasing trend in distribution of the most important VBH in Europe and to discuss the diagnostic and control strategies currently available
Conclusions great scientific achievements have been gained over the past decades on several aspects of the biology, epidemiology, control and treatment for many VBH (e.g., D. immitis and D. repens), most of them have only been recently known to science, they remain enigmatic in many ways
Summary
A large number of vector-borne helminths (VBH) are prevalent in Europe, and some of them are of growing importance due to the significant level of disease they cause in dogs and humans [1,2,3]. These molecular findings and studies on P. variegata indicate a high level of affinity of the nematode for its vector [18,19,85] and low degree of specificity for definitive hosts These results support the existence of a sylvatic life cycle for T. callipaeda and indicate that the infestation is mainly maintained by a large number of wildlife species that, altogether, could play a role in spreading the disease in many previously non endemic areas of Europe [11,13,14,15,16,86]. A multicentre study in the Mediterranean area proved that the three species of Cercopithifilaria affecting dogs might be discriminated from each other by differences in mitochondrial cox and ribosomal 12S sequences [36]
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