There is still a pressing need for effective adulticide treatment for human and animal filarial infections. Like many filarial nematodes, Dirofilaria immitis, the causative agent of canine heartworm disease, harbours the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia, which has been shown to be essential for worm development, fecundity and survival. Here the authors report the effect of different treatment r...

Canine heartworm disease is caused by infection with Dirofilaria immitis, a filarial nematode that resides in the pulmonary arteries and occasionally in the right heart chambers of infected dogs. Here the authors evaluated the effect of a combination of doxycycline (10 mg/kg/sid for 30 days) and ivermectin–pyrantel(6μg/kg [DOSAGE ERROR CORRECTED] of ivermectin+5mg/kg of pyrantel every 15 days f...

From October 1997 to September 1998, 3085 Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae), 584 Cx. tritaeniorhynchus (Giles) (Diptera: Culicidae), 392 Cx. annulus (Theobald) (Diptera: Culicidae), 374 Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) and 102 Armigeres subalbatus (Coquillet) (Diptera: Culicidae) were collected and examined for Dirofilaria immitis (Leidy) (Spirurida: Filariidae) inf...

Experimental work increasingly suggests that non-random pathogen associations can affect the spread or severity of disease. Yet due to difficulties distinguishing and interpreting co-infections, evidence for the presence and directionality of pathogen co-occurrences in wildlife is rudimentary. We provide empirical evidence for pathogen co-occurrences by analysing infection matrices for avian ma...

Filariasis infection is common in India and causes a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, namely, asymptomatic filariaemia, recurrent lymphadenitis, chronic lymphadenitis with swelling of the dependent limb, scrotal swelling, and tropical pulmonary eosinophilia. Waucheria bancrofti and Brugia malayi are the common species in India. Waucheria bancrofti is responsible for 90% of the cases. A...

BACKGROUND Dirofilaria immitis is a common nematode of the cardiovascular system, which infects carnivores all over the world. The infection is prevalent in dogs, but in cats and human is rare. Dirofilariosis is transmitted by mosquitoes. Cats are accidental hosts and are naturally resistant to the infection, compared to the dogs. Mild infection can cause severe illness in cats and may lead to ...

In order to evaluate the prevalence of canine heartworm in the State of Rio de Janeiro, a multicenter survey was carried out in two phases. The survey involved 1376 dogs from two cities: Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, and its surroundings, including the eastern shore and mountain resorts, which were further divided into sections. In the first phase, 795 dog blood samples were examined by the modif...

The detection and therapy of canine vector-borne diseases in imported dogs are of major importance in small animal practice. Over the last years, the import of dogs from the Mediterranean region and Southeast Europe has increased, countries often endemic for a variety of vector-borne diseases such as babesiosis, hepatozoonosis, leishmaniosis, dirofilariosis or ehrlichiosis. This retrospective s...

Although the biology and ecology of the arthropod vectors are different, some factors, such as global warming, the increasing abundance of mosquitoes, the movement of domestic hosts, and the abundance of wild reservoirs, can act as favourable factors for the distribution of infections. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infection in shepherd dogs living...