For example, wild foxes may act as reservoirs and amplifiers of canine ascarids, thus they re-enforce environmental contamination and risk of infection. the increase of wild fox populations in sub-urban and urban areas. This is of particular importance also because some driving forces are nowadays favouring their spread, e.g. Actually, they remain the most important parasites affecting companion animals worldwide and maintain the primacy in terms of dispersion and risk for animal and human health. In fact, these parasites have periods of development and survival in the environment, which are often at the basis of transmission routes in important sapro-zoonoses.ĭifferent species of ascarids (commonly known as “roundworms”) and ancylostomatids (commonly known as “hookworms”) may affect the small intestine of dogs and cats. This low-grade of interest and attention is crucial if one considers that several pet intestinal nematodes are zoonotic and endemic globally, and the spread of these parasites may be favoured by current climate changes. Indeed, the use of broad spectrum drugs, which are sold (often over-the-counter) in a plethora of formulations, carries the risk that leads the general public to minimize the importance of the “common intestinal worms” and to erode the importance of the veterinarian in controlling parasites of veterinary and human impact. This new concern has caused the misconception that intestinal worms of cats and dogs do not deserve a high-standard level of attention anymore, especially because the routine use of certain anthelmintics is believed to have reduced their diffusion and impact on animal health and welfare. As key examples, this is the case of the insect-borne filariae and eyeworm and of the snail-borne lungworms Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Angiostrongylus vasorum. Indeed, global climate change is influencing the ecology of helminths with multiple hosts and different transmission routes.
#Symptoms of hookworms in humans from dogs free#
In the past few years the attention of the Scientific Community has been attracted by feline and canine extra-intestinal parasitic nematodes, which are emerging in several countries and spreading into regions previously free from these parasites. Some of them are common and zoonotic: as a consequence, there is a continuing interest on their sanitary impact, and on prevention and control methods. Such association has led to the dispersion of pets all over the World, along with the spread of their pathogens. The relationship between human beings and domesticated small animals began about 15.000 years ago.