New insights on to cardiopulmonary nematodes of dogs in Sardinia, Italy

ORIGINAL PAPER
New insights onto cardiopulmonary nematodes of dogs
in Sardinia, Italy
A. P. Pipia
&
A. Varcasia
&
G. Tosciri
&
S. Seu
&
M. L. Manunta
&
M. C. Mura
&
G. Sanna
&
C. Tamponi
&
E. Brianti
&
A. Scala
Received: 14 January 2014 /Accepted: 28 January 2014 /Published online: 14 February 2014
#
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract
Dog heartworms
Angiostrongylus vasorum
and
Dirofilaria immitis
cause severe parasitological diseases; the
importance of these parasitosis is growing due to their health
impact on animals, the possible zoonotic implications and the
recent spreading across several European countries and pre-
viously non-endemic areas. The aim of this study is to update
the epidemiological scenario of cardiopulmonary nematodes
A. vasorum
and
D. immitis
in dogs of Sardinia island and to
perform a morphological identification of larvae by the use of
the Baermann and Knott techniques respectively and the
molecular characterization of the mitochondrial cytochrome
c oxidase subunit I (
cox
1) and the second ribosomal tran-
scribed spacer region (ITS-2) of larvae L1 of
A. vasorum
.In
the present study, 3.4 % (5/146) of dogs resulted positive at
Baermann technique for
A. vasorum
while 8.9 % (61/684) to
D. immitis
. If on one side
A. vasorum
can be considered an
emerging parasite in Sardinia, the parasitic pressure and the
risk of infection for
D. immitis
in the island seems to be
increased compared with the recent past