Prevalence of zoonotic intestinal parasites in household and stray dogs in rural areas of Hamadan, Western Iran.

Zoonotic parasitic infections are a major global public and veterinary health problem and widespread among dogs. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasites in stray and household dogs in the rural areas of Hamadan district. During 2012, 1,500 fresh fecal samples from 243 household and 1,257 stray dogs were examined by using direct wet mount, simple zinc sulfate flotation, and Lugol's solution staining. Of 1,500 dogs, 20.4% were positive for intestinal parasites. Helminthes eggs were more frequently found in fecal samples than protozoan cysts or trophozoites (15.9% vs. 4.5%, respectively). Toxocara canis was the most frequently detected parasite, with a prevalence of 6.3%, followed by Taenia/Echinococcus spp. (2.9%), Isospora spp. (2.7%), and Toxascaris leonina (2.6%). Helminthes and protozoa were significantly more prevalent in household dogs than in stray dogs (P<0.001). There were significant differences in the prevalence of Isospora spp., T. canis and D. caninum among three age groups (P<0.05). The wide range of isolated parasites indicated that people residing in this area are at risk of exposure to these potentially hazardous zoonotic pathogens. Mass education of the general population is highly recommended to increase awareness of the potential for horizontal transmission of these parasitic infections from dogs to humans.

Frequency of resistance and susceptible bacteria isolated from houseflies.

BACKGROUND: In this study, we determine the vector competence of Musca domestica with reference to the transmission of susceptible and resistance bacterial strains in hospitals and slaughter house in Sanandaj City, west Iran. METHODS: Totally 908 houseflies were collected to isolate bacteria from their external body based on standard procedures.Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method on Mueller Hinton agar based on recommendations of CLSI (formerly the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards). RESULTS: From collected houseflies, 366 bacteria species were isolated. The most common isolated bacterium at hospitals was Klebsiella pneumoniae 43.3% (n= 90) followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa 37% (n= 77), while that of slaughterhouse was Proteus mirabilis. 29.1% (n= 46) followed by Citrobacter freundii 28.4% (n= 45). Among all the isolates from hospitals, cephalexin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, and tetracycline, resistance rates were above 32.5% and gentamicin expressed the highest susceptibility among all the isolates from hospitals. It is worth to note that K. pneumoniae showed 61% and 44.5% resistance to cephalexin and chloramphenicol respectively. Similarly, all isolates from slaughterhouse were more than 28% and 30% resistant to cephalexin and chloramphenicol respectively. Surprisingly, among all the isolates, Citrobacter freundii were highly resistant to gentamicin. CONCLUSION: Houseflies collected from hospitals and slaughterhouse may be involved in the spread of drug resistant bacteria and may increase the potential of human exposure to drug resistant bacteria.

Survival rates of Anopheles culicifacies s.l. and Anopheles pulcherrimus in sprayed and unsprayed villages in Ghassreghand district, Baluchistan, Iran, 1991.

Survival rates, expectation of life, and expectation of infective life of Anopheles culicifacies and Anopheles pulcherrimus were estimated in sprayed and unsprayed villages in the highly malarious Ghassreghand District, Iran, during the 2 peak malaria transmission seasons in 1991. The daily survival rate of An. culicifacies was estimated as 0.84 and 0.78 during May and 0.89 and nil during September-October in the unsprayed and sprayed villages, respectively. For An. pulcherrimus the daily survival rate was estimated as 0.80 and 0.78 in May and 0.83 and 0.78 in September-October in the unsprayed and sprayed villages, respectively. The impact of indoor residual spraying during the first peak of transmission on An. culicifacies and An. pulcherrimus (expressed as the product of the degree of reduction of the expectation of infective life and the degree of reduction of expectation of life) was calculated as 3.5 and 1.5 times, respectively, that in the absence of control. The impact of indoor residual spraying on An. culicifacies during the second peak of transmission was almost complete, whereas that for An. pulcherrimus was 3.4 times than that in the absence of control.