PECULIARITIES OF DEMODECOSIS COURSE IN HELMINTHOSES ASSOCIATIONS OF DOGS’ DIGESTIVE TRACT

Abstract

Demodecosis invasion occupies a particular place among the diseases of pets. Most often dogs are affect-
ed by the disease and it can cause considerable economic losses to dog breeding. At the same time, de-
modecosis has social importance, as dogs constantly contact with their owners. Demodecosis is widely
spread in many European countries including Ukraine, where the invasion tends to constant spreading as a
result of increasing the number of carnivorous animals, especially in cities and towns. The studies were con-
ducted in the laboratory of the Department of Parasitology and Veterinary-Sanitary Expert Examination of
Poltava State Agrarian Academy. The aim of the research was to investigate the peculiarities of demodecosis
course in the helminthoses of dog digestive tract and determine the main associates of mixed invasions.
Dogs’ skin scrapings studies were conducted by vital method. Helminth oovoscopy of dogs’ feces samples
infected with Demodex canis was made by Kotelnikov-Khrenov’s method. According to the results of dogs’
acarological studies, it was established that the average prevalence of demodecosis invasion made 21.43 %
among  the  animal  skin  pathologies  in the town of Poltava. Mixed  invasions  were  presented  by  two-
component and three-component associations of parasites, namely: Demodex canis (Leydig, 1859), Trichuris
vulpis (Frцlich, 1789), and Uncinaria stenocephala (Railliet, 1884), in different combinations. Most often,
demodecosis-trichurosis invasion  was  detected  (54.55  of  all the  revealed  mixed  invasions). Demodecosis-
uncinariosis (27.27 %) and demodecosis-trichurosis-uncinariosis (18.18 %) invasions were registered less
frequently. It  was  determined  that  demodecosis  was  manifested  both  as  mono-invasion  in  infected  dogs
(47.62 %) and association with intestinal nematodoses (52.38 %). Two-component mixed invasions dominat-
ed, in which the indices of prevalence reached 42.86 %. Three-component invasion was revealed only in
9.52 % of dogs diseased with demodecosis. The obtained results of studies supplement the existing data as to
the course of dog demodecosis and will also enable to conduct complex treatment of demodecosis associative
course.