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Opportunistic Protozoan Infections of Carnivores

Abstract Giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis are protozoan infections of the digestive tract and one of the most frequent causes of enteritis in dogs and cats, associated with acute and chronic diarrhoea. Generally, the risk of infection is higher for younger individuals in which the overall clinical picture and the course of disease are more serious. In this study we investigated the prevalence of giardiasis and cryptosporidiosis in dogs in Košice district of eastern Slovakia. From September 2015 until November 2016, we examined samples of faeces from 100 dogs from two shelters. Giardia duodenalis was diagnosed by the flotation method according to Faust, and by the molecular biologic method (Nested PCR). For the diagnosis of cryptosporidium oocysts, we used a staining method according to Kinyoun, and for detection of the presence of Cryptosporidium spp. a sandwich ELISA method. The total prevalence of these protozoan infections were 22 % (22/100), and of that, 19 % of the samples (19/100) were positive for Giardia duodenalis and 3 % (3/100) for the Cryptosporidium spp. In the shelter in Haniska, the giardia cysts were present in 9/54 samples (16.6 %) and cryptosporidia oocysts in 1/54 (1.85 %) samples of the faeces. In the Malá Farma shelter, 10/46 (21.73 %) samples were positive for G. duodenalis and 2/46 (4.34 %) showed positivity for Cryptosporidium spp.