Prevalence of Giardia spp. in dogs with  gastrointestinal symptoms in Beijing, China

Lushuang Zhang; Yang Liu; Zhaofei Xia; Yanzheng Sun; jinhai yun

Volume : III, Issue : XII, December - 2013

Prevalence of Giardia spp. in dogs with gastrointestinal symptoms in Beijing, China

Lushuang Zhang, Yang Liu, Zhaofei Xia, Yanzheng Sun, Jinhai Yun

Abstract :

The prevalence of Giardia spp. was studied in dogs in Beijing. Fresh faecal samples were taken from dogs (n=800) with gastrointestinal (GI) clinical signs presented to seven veterinary clinics between January 2012 and December 2012. All samples were tested for Giardia infection using the IDEXX SNAP Giardia test kit and the conventional microscopic method. The prevalence of Giardia spp. was 20.25% (162/800) by the SNAP test, and only 21.6% (35/162) of the SNAP–positive samples were positive by microscopy. A total of 13 risk factors associated with prevalence of Giardia infection were investigated in this study, Age (P<0.001), eed (P=0.009), defecation site (P<0.001), and boarding history (P=0.014) had a significant impact on Giardia infection according to the Chi square test. Puppies (< 6 months old) had the highest incidence (31.78%) of Giardiasis. (OR=14.556). While the prevalence of the other two categories was 18.45% (6 months to 2 years old) and 3.27% (≥ 2 years old), respectively. Pureed dogs had a higher prevalence (21.46%, OR 1.6) than that of crossed dogs (10.34 %). Of Giardia–positive dogs, 54.3 % were anorexic. Compared with the results of previous study in Guangzhou China (Li et al., 2012), this study showed relatively high rates of Giardia spp. infection in dogs in Beijing. Giardia infection should be considered in the differential diagnosis of dogs presented to veterinary practices with GI symptoms.