Zoonotic helminth diseases in dogs and dingoes utilising shared resources in an Australia indigenous community

Smout, Felicity A., Skerratt, Lee F., Johnson, Christopher N., Butler, James R.A., and Congdon, Bradley C. (2018) Zoonotic helminth diseases in dogs and dingoes utilising shared resources in an Australia indigenous community. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 3 (4). 110.

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Abstract

The impacts of free-roaming canids (domestic and wild) on public health have long been a concern in Australian Indigenous communities. We investigated the prevalence of zoonotic helminth diseases in dogs and sympatric dingoes, and used radio telemetry to measure their spatial overlap, in an Aboriginal community in the Wet Tropics of Australia. Samples collected from dingoes and dogs showed high levels of infection with the zoonotic hookworm Ancylostoma caninum. Dingoes were also positive for A. ceylanicum infection (11.4%) but dogs were infection free. Whipworm, Trichuris vulpis, infection was far more prevalent in necropsies of domestic dogs (78.6%) than dingoes (3.7%). Dogs were free from Dirofilaria immitis infection, while dingoes recorded 46.2% infection. Eleven dingoes and seven free-roaming domestic dogs were fitted with GPS collars and tracked over an extended period. Dingo home-ranges almost completely overlapped those of the domestic dogs. However, dingoes and dogs did not utilise the same area at the same time, and dogs may have avoided dingoes. This spatial overlap in resource use presents an opportunity for the indirect spill-over and spill-back of parasites between dogs and dingoes. Tracking and camera traps showed that the community rubbish tip and animal carcasses were areas of concentrated activity for dogs and dingoes.

Item ID: 55744
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 2414-6366
Keywords: dingo, dogs, aboriginal, diseases, canine, zoonoses
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Copyright Information: © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Additional Information:

A version of this publication was included as Chapter 6 of the following PhD thesis: Smout, Felicity Angela (2019) Potential for transmission of zoonotic helminth infections among dingoes and dogs in the wet tropics of North Queensland, Australia. PhD thesis, James Cook University., which is available Open Access in ResearchOnline@JCU. Please see the Related URLs for access.

Date Deposited: 09 Oct 2018 04:07
FoR Codes: 45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4504 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing > 450417 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander public health and wellbeing @ 30%
30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3009 Veterinary sciences > 300909 Veterinary parasitology @ 30%
31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310301 Behavioural ecology @ 40%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9203 Indigenous Health > 920301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health - Determinants of Health @ 30%
96 ENVIRONMENT > 9608 Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity > 960806 Forest and Woodlands Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity @ 40%
92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920120 Zoonoses @ 30%
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