This study was conducted to investigate the low prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in dogs in Johor Bahru as reported by veterinary practitioners, using wet blood mount, Knott’s Concentration Test and two heartworm antigen test kits (IDEXX Canine SNAP® 4Dx and RapiGEN®). This study also compared the two test kits used and determined the microfilaria species. Blood were collected from 100 owned d...

objective: to report a case of periocular dirofilariasis. patient and findings: a 27-year-old female referred with history of edema and redness in left eye for two days. on slit-lamp examination, a moving threadlike worm was seen in subconjunctival area. two days later a live filaria worm measuring 12 cm in length was extracted from lower lid subcutaneous tissue. the worm was diagnosed dirofila...

heartworm disease is caused by dirofilaria immitis in dogs and cats. dirofilariasis is clinically considered very important, because of its severe and life threatening disease in case of even light infection. cats are infected much less commonly, even in areas which present heavily infected dogs. after clinical examination blood samples were collected from 120 companion and stray adult cats in ...

Most cases of coccidioidomycosis in organ transplant recipients arise from either primary infection with Coccidioides immitis after environmental exposure or from reactivation of latent infection. Herein, we report 2 cases of rapidly fatal, disseminated coccidioidomycosis that occurred in organ transplant recipients who had never lived in or visited an area where C. immitis is endemic. Both sub...

We determined the prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis (Nematoda, Filariidae) among 433 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in northeastern Spain, between 1990 and 1992. Forty-six (11%) of 433 foxes were infected; the intensity ranged from 1 to 36 (mean +/- SE; 4.39 +/- 0.92) nematodes per host. The prevalence of D. immitis was higher in foxes inhabiting riparian zones of the study area. This population has...

Coccidioides posadasii Deltachs5 is a strain that is excluded from the select agent list. Sixteen assays using test reagents from three different ACCUPROBE Coccidioides immitis culture identification test lots had an average of 132,998 relative light units (RLU), which is well beyond the 50,000-RLU positive cutoff value for the test. Coccidioides posadasii Deltachs5 is a satisfactory quality co...

OBJECTIVE To describe ocular findings in 2 patients with disseminated coccidioidomycosis diagnosed by skin biopsy. METHODS The clinical and histopathologic findings of the 2 patients were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS One patient had a unilateral, granulomatous iridocyclitis with multiple iris nodules and a large vascularized anterior chamber mass, in the setting of pulmonary, cutaneous...

The relative suitability of two colonies established from local strains of Aedes albopictus (Wilmington and Rockingham) and a local (Raleigh) and laboratory (Liverpool) strain of Ae. aegypti to support development of Dirofilaria immitis was investigated. High levels of mortality occurred 1-2 days after mosquitoes fed on a heavily microfilaremic (28,617 microfilariae/ml) dog but not when mosquit...

Dirofilaria immitis is the causative agent of heartworm disease in canines and felines, and pulmonary dirofilariasis in man. It harbors a symbiotic intracellular bacterium from the genus Wolbachia that plays an important role in its biology and contributes to the inflammatory pathology of the heartworm. This endosymbiont is sensitive to the tetracycline family of antibiotics prompting its use i...

Dogs are a reservoir for Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), and other companion vector-borne diseases, including ehrlichiosis (Ehrlichia canis Ehrlichia ewingii), anaplasmosis (Anaplasma phagocytophilum Anaplasma platys), dirofilariasis (Dirofilaria immitis) Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi). This study has two key objectives: 1) to determine seroreactivity against T. in ...