gastrointestinal parasites of pet dogs in urmia city

to determine gastrointestinal parasites of pet dogs of urmia this study was carried out in a peroid of 14 months form april 2005 to june 2006. two hundered and six fecal samples i.e; 169 and 37 samples from male and female dogs respectively, were collected from small animal’s clinics of urmia city. the dogs were studeied in two age groups of ≤ 6 months and >6 months included number of 60 and 146 respectively. the results indicated that 71(34.46%) of the specimens have been infected at least by one parasite. the parasites were identified as follows: giardia and cryptosporidium 6(2.6%), hook worm and toxacara spp 6 (2.91%) and hook worm, toxacara spp, isospora spp 27(13.1%), 20(9.7%) and 3(1.45%), respectively. in this survey 2(0.97%) were infected to cestoda. majority of the dog owners (82.2%) were not found to be aware of the potential risk of canine parasites to human health and their knowledge were found unsatisfactory.