A coprological investigation of gastrointestinal and cardiopulmonary parasites in hunting dogs in Denmark

A coprological survey was conducted to investigate the prevalence of parasites infect-ing hunting dogs with no history of recent anthelmintic treatments and with no overtclinical manifestations of cardiopulmonary or gastrointestinal illness. The hunting dogswere recruited from four different areas in Denmark, and fecal samples were obtainedin October and November, 2007. For detecting gastrointestinal parasites, samples (N = 178)were examined by a commercial flotation kit (Fecalyzer®EVSCO, USA). For detection of car-diopulmonary parasites, samples (N = 181) were collected on three consecutive days andexamined using the Baermann method. Parasites were recovered from 22.1% of the huntingdogs: Angiostrongylus vasorum (2.2%), Toxocara canis (12.4%), Uncinaria stenocephala (7.3%),Taenia spp. (1.7%), Toxascaris leonina (0.6%), Coccidia (0.6%) and unidentified trematode eggs(1.1%). Infection with only one species of parasite was more common (89.5%) than infectionwith two species (10.5%). A multiple logistic regression model showed that prevalence ofintestinal parasites was not influenced by age, gender or breed in adult dogs. There was asignificantly higher prevalence of intestinal parasites in the densely populated area of theisland Zealand compared with the less populated regions of the peninsular Jutland. Thepresent study reports the first case of A. vasorum in a dog from Jutland. The dog had beenvisiting the endemic area of western Zealand, suggesting that translocation of sub-clinicallyinfected dogs may contribute to introduction of A. vasorum into non-endemic areas.