Author(s):
Determine the incidence of intestinal parasite infections in 101 dogs living in a Veracruz, Mexico animal shelter, and look into any general traits of the dogs that might be linked to infections. Fecal samples from the dogs were centrifugeflotated using Sheather's sucrose and zinc sulphate flotation media to perform a parasitological study. Additionally, the hematocrit of each sample of canine blood was measured of the 101 dogs examined, 99 (98.0%) had intestinal parasites. Approximately five distinct intestinal parasites were found in 89 dogs (88.1%), including Ancylostoma caninum, Giardia canis, Uncinaria stenocephala, Trichuris vulpis, and Strongyloides canis. Giardia infection was connected with early age and multivariate analysis revealed that Lack of rabies vaccination and early age were linked to ancylostoma; lack of rabies vaccine was linked to strongyloides. Infections with Trichuris and Uncinaria were not linked to the variables examined. The tested dogs had a significant frequency of intestinal parasites. This shows that intestinal parasite contamination of the environment is very high. Dogs in this area should be protected from intestinal parasite infection with preventative and treatment approaches.
