prevalence of giardia duodenalis infection in household cats of ah-vaz district, south-west of iran

background: the occurrence of giardia duodenalis in cats is of potential significance from both clinical and public health perspectives. the object of this study was antigenic detection of g. duo­denalis in house­hold cats of ahvaz district, south-west of iran. methods: the prevalence of g. duodenalis was determined in fecal samples by two techniques: centrifuga­tion-flotation and a commercial giardia antigen test kit (immunochromatography assay) in 150 household cats of different ages among referred cases to veterinary hospital of ahvaz university from january 2008 to february 2010. results: five out of 150 fecal samples (3.33%) were positive for antigen of g. duodenalis by immunochromatography assay. the prevalence was significantly higher in young cats less than 6 months (15.79%) compared with adult cats 6 months - 3 years (1.37%) ( p =0.027) and above 3 years (1.72%) ( p =0.044). the infection had more prevalence in diarrheic cats (17.39%) com­pared with non-diarrheic cats (0.79%) and the difference was significant ( p =0.02) as well. the prevalence was higher in male cats (3.41%) than females (3.23%) and in the season of autumn (6.06%), but the difference was not significant between the prevalence of infection relative to host gender and season ( p >0.05). microscopy examination on fecal samples showed that 2% of the studied cats were positive. conclusion: the parasite antigen was present as a zoonotic infection in ahvaz district, south-west of iran. more sensitive techniques, such as immunochromatography assay, might yield more reli­able results, in the detection of low levels of giardia in fecal samples of cats.