Epidemiological Study of Gastrointestinal Helminthes of Canids in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province of Iran

Abstract

Background: The present study was carried out to describe the epidemio-logical aspects of gastrointestinal helminthic infections of canids in Chahar-mahal and Bakhtiari Province, the central western part of Iran. Methods: Forty nine canid species including, dogs, jackals, foxes and wolves were included in this study. The contents of their alimentary canal were in-spected in order to isolate and identify the parasitic helminthes of this system. To identify the worms, the Soulsbey and Anderson identification key and light microscopy were used. Results: Based on necropsy findings, 35 (71.4%( of examined animals were infected with at least one helminth. The prevalence of identified worms was as follows: Mesocestoides lineatus (55.1%), Joyeuxiella echinorinchoides (26.5%), Tae-nia hydatigena (12.2%), T. multiceps (8.2%), T. ovis (2%), Dipylidium caninum (2%) and Spirura spp. (2%). No significant difference was noticed between the sam-pling areas, age and helminth infection. Only a significant difference was ob-served for prevalence of T. multiceps in wolf (25%), dog (21.4%), jackal and fox (0%) respectively (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The canids in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari harbor several para-sites that some kind of them have zoonotic importance and may pose a threat to community health specially in rural areas.

Keywords

• Canids
• Gastrointestinal
• Helminthes
• Iran