Gastro-intestinal nematodes of élite show dogs in Great Britain

Abstract

In order to make a valid assessment of the extent to which British dogs are infected with helminth parasites, it is necessary to collect and collate information from a wide spectrum of the constituent groups that make up the total canine population of the United Kingdom. The purpose of the present contribution is to report for the first time on the prevalence of patent infection with gastro-intestinal nematodes in élite show dogs.A total of 574 freshly deposited faecal samples were collected from “exercising areas” at a large dog show exhibiting more than 9 800 high quality animals of many breeds from all areas of the United Kingdom. A sugar flotation, centrifugation technique was used to detect the presence of nematode ova, which were found in 12·2% of the dogs sampled. There was evidence of infection with the following parasites: Toxocara canis, Toxascaris leonina, Trichuris vulpis and Uncinaria stenocephala. The overall prevalence rates for each Were 7·3%, 2·8%, 1·9% and 0·9%, respectively. Data on the age and sex of the donor animals were available for 338 of the samples and the distribution of T. canis infections in elation to these factors is displayed in Table 1.