The canine heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis, is among the most important parasites of dogs in United States and worldwide, may cause severe potentially fatal disease. Current diagnostic recommendations rely on serological detection an adult female antigen, visualization microfilariae blood. Therefore, a reliable diagnosis can be only performed approximately six months post-infection. There growin...

The binding of 10 different lectins to the surface of microfilariae of Wuchereria bancrofti has been investigated. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) and Helix pomatia lectin (HPA) bound specifically to the sheathed microfilariae indicating the presence of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-galactosamine respectively on the surface. Exsheathed microfilariae did not react with any of the lectins. Tr...

Dirofilariosis is a parasitic disease caused by helminths of the genus Dirofilaria. Climatic changes are considered to be main risk factors for dirofilariosis spreading. In the Slovak Republic, canine subcutaneous dirofilariosis was recorded for the first time in 2005. In 2007 the first coordinated research project started to detect possible endemic infections and to determine their magnitude. ...

Leishmaniasis and dirofilariasis are parasitic diseases of humans and dogs, worldwide, and they are often found as coinfections in endemic areas. Cases of human and canine dirofilariasis have being reported in Greece and leishmaniasis is endemic in most prefectures in humans and dogs. In most cases, dirofilariasis is established by parasitological (the modified Knott’s test) and/or immunologica...

Heartworm prevention: Major factors of resistance First, heartworm preventives were designed and marketed at doses intended to prevent infection by killing third-stage and young fourth-stage larvae, not microfilariae. Thus, microfilariae may persist despite exposure to a macrocyclic lactone (ML); these drug-selected microfilariae can be transmitted between dogs by mosquitoes. This seems an unwi...

Loa loa is a filarial nematode that infects humans. The adults live in subcutaneous tissues and produce microfilariae that live for several weeks in the blood circulation in order to be transmitted to another person via blood meals of a dipterian vector. As microfilariae live in continuous contact with plasma, it is obvious that they evade the complement system. We studied markers of complement...

Four techniques for the detection and quantification of Dirofilaria immitis microfilariae in peripheral blood were compared, namely the conventional thick smear, thick films prepared by cytocentrifugation, filtration of blood through polycarbonate membranes, and density gradient centrifugation followed by membrane filtration. The efficiency of the methods and their sensitivity was assessed by d...

A fluoresceinated lectin binding assay was employed to detect carbohydrates on the sheath and cuticle of mature in vivo-derived, and immature in utero-derived Brugia pahangi microfilariae. The sheath of mature microfilariae bound concanavalin A and wheat germ agglutinin, indicating the presence of N-acetylglucosamine and glucose or mannose. In addition to binding concanavalin A and wheat germ a...

The distribution of living and dead microfilariae in 160 cases of ocular onchocerciasis has been studied. A model for coding the densities in 9 different areas of the cornea has been used. The average numbers of microfilariae and onchocercal punctate opacities per square millimetre were assessed. The highest densities were found in the superficial one-third of the corneal stroma at the peripher...

The distribution of living and dead microfilariae in 160 cases of ocular onchocerciasis has been studied. A model for coding the densities in 9 different areas of the cornea has been used. The average numbers of microfilariae and onchocercal punctate opacities per square millimetre were assessed. The highest densities were found in the superficial one-third of the corneal stroma at the peripher...