Canine Parasites | Parasites in Dogs
Dog Parasites are a fascinating group of invertebrates that are found in and on all groups of animals of interest in veterinary medicine. They have evolved and developed with many of their hosts and may or may not produce clinical disease, depending on a variety of environmental, ecological, immunological, physiological, and managerial factors that influence the host-parasite relationship.
This relationship is constantly changing, and as producers change management systems through animal breeding, animal manipulation, exotic introductions, environmental control, and use of pet meds, different manifestations of diseases are observed. As an example, Facioloides magna is a liver fluke of whitetailed deer and elk and usually does not harm these hosts. However, when domestic sheeps or goats are grazed in areas where F. magna is present, death of sheeps and goats occurs within a relatively short time. Some hosts cannot tolerate the effects of specific parasites and die, whereas other hosts are well adapted to the parasite and no clinical signs of siseases are present.
Since many parasites can be pathogenic, the goal of the clinician and producer is prevention of clinical parasitism through management, nutrition, epizootiology, and effective drugs. Knoledge of life cycles and epizootiology must be used in the formulation of effective parasite control programs. Indiscriminate use of drugs is a poor substitute for suboptimal management. A final word is that new parasites and ecological relationships are being discovered, so do not be surprised when you make a discovery contrary to published reports.
