serological and molecular detection of dirofilaria species in stray dogs and investigation of wolbachia dna by pcr in turkey

background: dirofilaria immitis and dirofilaria repens are the most common species of filarial nematodes described in the dogs. a single-step multiplex pcr was applied to detect and differentiate simultaneously and unequivocally d. im­mitis and d. repens on dna extracted from canine peripheral blood and besides to detect the seroprevalance of d. immitis by elisa in elazig province, turkey. a pcr detection of the wolbachia , which plays an important role in d. immitis biology and contributes to the inflammatory pathology of the heartworm, was also applied for the first time in turkey. methods: a total of 161 whole blood and sera samples were collected from stray dogs and stored at -20 °c until used. after dna extraction, all samples were processed with dirofilaria primers by multiplex-pcr and wolbachia primers by conventional pcr besides elisa for serology. the amplification was performed using a set of primers designed on a portion of the small subunit ribosomal rna gene of the mitochondrion (12s rdna). results: three of the examined dogs (1.8%) were found to be infected with only d. immitis , one (0.6%) with d. repens and three (1.8%) with both parasites. besides, 10 out of 161 dogs (6.2%) were found infected with wolbachia sp. finaly, the seroprevalence of dirofilariosis in the examined dogs was found to be 3.7% (6/161). conclusion: although dirofilariosis is not a serious problem in the region, the stray dogs still continue to be a source of infection.