Prevalence of Giardia in Household Dogs and Cats in the State of Rio de Janeiro using the IDEXX SNAP® Giardia Test

A survey to estimate the prevalence of Giardia infections was conducted using a commercial Giardia antigen test kit (IDEXX SNAP® Giardia Test; IDEXX Laboratories, Inc., Westbrook, ME) in 1,837 dogs and 462 cats brought to participating clinics in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The overall estimated prevalence of Giardia infection was 9.7% in dogs and 15.6% in cats, and was lowest for animals six years of age or older (4.4%) than in all other age groups (P < 0.01). Fecal centrifugation-flotation techniques frequently fail to identify infected animals because the passage of cysts in the feces is intermittent. The SNAP® Giardia test, with a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 99%, improves the ability of veterinarians and technicians to diagnose Giardia infections without having to perform repeated tests or have extensive training to be able to recog-