Abstract

The experiment investigated the response of Nigerian local breed of dog to different doses of Ancylostoma caninum infection. Sixteen dogs aged 6 to 7 months and assigned to 4 groups (A – D) of 4 dogs each were used. Groups A, B and C were infected with 100, 200 and 400 A. caninum infective larvae (L₃) while group D served as the uninfected control. Faecal egg count (FEC), red blood cell (RBC) counts, haemoglobin concentrations (HBC), packed cell volume (PCV) and body weight (BWT) were evaluated weekly from day 0 (D0) to D56 post-infection (Pi). The dogs were humanely sacrificed on D56 Pi to determine the adult worm count (WC). The mean FEC of dogs given 400 L₃ (group C) was significantly (P <0.05) higher than those given 100 L₃ (group A). There was no significant (P > 0.05) difference between the mean FEC of groups B (200 L₃) and C dogs. The group C dogs had significantly higher (P ≤ 0.05) worm burden than those in groups B and A. There was a dose dependent reduction in RBC counts, HBC and PCV of the infected dogs which was most significant (P < 0.05) in group C followed by group B. The control and group A dogs had a BWT gains of 0.75 and 0.15 kg, respectively at the end of the experiment when compared to their D0 BWT while groups B and C lost 1.70 and 3.30 Kg of their BWT by D56 respectively. The results of this study showed that while the FEC did not differ significantly among the infected dogs, other measures of parasite intensity, namely, WC, PCV, RBC, HBC and BWT differed in a dose dependent manner.

Keywords: Ancylostoma caninum, Dogs, infective dose, Nigeria, Response