Epidemiological aspects of Dirofilaria immitis infection in dogs from Assam of Northeast India

Dirofilaria immitis (D. immitis) is a filarial nematode which resides in the pulmonary arteries and right ventricle of heart in dogs. Mosquitoes under several genera including Culex, Aedes, and Anopheles are the competent vectors of the parasite. Dogs with heavy infection suffer from cardiorespiratory disturbances, resulting in multiple organ dysfunctions. In India, the parasite has been sporadically reported in dogs and wild captive carnivores from the north and northeastern region[1-3]. A case of human dirofilariosis was also reported from Mumbai in Central India[4]. Despite the strong belief that the parasite is confined to India’s northeastern region[2,5], the epidemiological situation here is far from clear. Reports available so far on the prevalence of D. immitis in dogs from this region are mainly based on postmortem study in non-descript street dogs[2,3]. The present study was undertaken to analyze the risk factors of PEER REVIEW ABSTRACT