Gastrointestinal Helminthes in Dogs and Community Perception on Parasite Zoonosis at Hawassa City, Ethiopia

3 Abstract: A cross sectional study was conducted from November 2011 to April 2012 in Hawassa city to estimate prevalence of helminthes, associate with the assumed risk factors and assess community perception on dog helminthes zoonosis. Fecal samples of 448 dogs regardless of their sex, age, breed and management system were randomly sampled and were diagnosed for the occurrence of gastrointestinal helminthes using Mac master egg count and sedimentation techniques. Out of sampled dogs, 84.6 %( 379/448) were found to be positive. Six elminthes species recovered, Anclyostoma caninum egg (54.5%) was the most prevalent parasite, whereas Echnococcus granulossos egg (3.6%) was the least prevalent one. Among the assumed risk factors stray dogs had high prevalence (97.34%) as compared to that of semi-confined (79.72%) and confined (69.64%) dogs. There was significant variation (p<0.05) among age groups; prevalence of Anclyostoma caninum (73.17%) and Toxocara canis (32.03%) were higher in puppies, whereas Strongloides stercoralis (34.95%) and Dipylidium. caninum (34.3%) were high in adult dogs. The proportion of mixed infections of two, three and four parasite species in same host were found to be 42.4%, 15.2% and 2.2%, respectively. Community response has indicated that all individuals were not aware of treating their dogs against parasites, provision of good house and appropriate waste disposal. Furthermore, all respondents had no idea about zoonotic parasites. Therefore, the current high prevalence of dog gastrointestinal helminthes and zoonotic importance warns to conduct appropriate awareness creation, control and prevention has to be implemented to mitigate its further spread.