Prevalence of Blood Protozoa in Street Dogs of The Bharatpur Metropolitan Area of Nepal.

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

Different hemoparasites are linked to companion animals like dogs and cats, which can
pose substantial health risks and have a significant financial impact on owners. Nepal's
major cities have huge number of stray dog populations. Due to its extreme
pathogenicity, a haemoprotozoan infection is one of the most significant tick-borne
infections. Hemoprotozoan diseases caused by many Trypanosoma species include
trypanosomosis, theileriosis, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis. Ticks thrive in the hot,
humid climate, which also serves as a dependable source of infection for vulnerable
animals like dogs. A research was carried out in the Bharatpur Metropolitan City of
Chitwan, Nepal during June and July 2022 to assess the incidence of tick-borne blood
protozoa in stray dogs. Blood samples were randomly collected and the smears were
examined under microscope by the Giemsa staining method. Out of 105 street dogs only
14 samples tested positive for blood protozoa. Among these three types of
bloodprotozoa were detected, Theileria spp. (10.47%) was found to have the highest
prevalence rate followed by Babesia spp. (1.9%) and Ehrlichiacanis (0.95%) with an
overall prevalence of 13.33%. The prevalence rate was higher in males (8.5%) than in
females (4.76%). The relation was not statistically significant.Infected dogs had
considerably lower mean hemoglobin levels than non-infected dogs.

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