Montoya-Alonso José Alberto, García Rodríguez Sara Nieves, Carretón Elena, Rodríguez Escolar Iván, Costa-Rodríguez Noelia, Matos Jorge Isidoro, Morchón Rodrigo
Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Research Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences (IUIBS), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Zoonotic Infections and One Health Group, Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Salamanca, Campus Miguel Unamuno, Salamanca, Spain.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 May 12;9:900371. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.900371. eCollection 2022.
Feline heartworm is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused by . It is a cosmopolitan disease that is continuously expanding. Spain is considered an endemic country; however, although there are many published studies in dogs, feline heartworm has been poorly studied in this country. Thus, the objective was to analyze the exposure to throughout Spain to complete the epidemiological map in the feline species. For this, 6,588 feline serum samples were analyzed for the presence of antigens and antibodies against and . The results were analyzed according to sex, age, breed, habitat, origin (owned or shelter cats), presence of clinical signs, use of preventive, location and climatology. The results showed a prevalence of 0.5% and a seroprevalence of 9.4%. The highest antibody seroprevalences were reported in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (19.2 and 16%, respectively), as well as in the autonomous communities located on the Mediterranean coast (9.2-11.2%). Seropositive cats were found in both indoor and outdoor cats, and from 6 months of age. Furthermore, only 5.8% of cats received regular prophylactic treatment. The results show that feline dirofilariasis is widely distributed throughout the national territory and corroborate that, where infected dogs are present, there are cats exposed to the parasite. It is necessary to implement efficient awareness and prophylaxis measures to control the incidence and expansion of feline heartworm in Spain.
猫心丝虫病是一种由……引起的媒介传播人畜共患病。它是一种在全球范围内不断蔓延的疾病。西班牙被视为该病的流行国家；然而，尽管有许多关于犬类的已发表研究，但该国对猫心丝虫病的研究却很少。因此，本研究的目的是分析西班牙各地猫对……的接触情况，以完善猫科动物的流行病学图谱。为此，对6588份猫血清样本进行了分析，检测针对……的抗原和抗体。根据性别、年龄、品种、栖息地、来源（家养或收容所猫）、临床症状的有无、预防措施的使用情况、地理位置和气候条件对结果进行了分析。结果显示，患病率为0.5%，血清阳性率为9.4%。据报道，加那利群岛和巴利阿里群岛的抗体血清阳性率最高（分别为19.2%和16%），地中海沿岸的自治区也是如此（9.2 - 11.2%）。在室内和室外的猫中，以及6个月龄以上的猫中均发现了血清阳性猫。此外，只有5.8%的猫接受了定期的预防性治疗。结果表明，猫恶丝虫病在全国范围内广泛分布，并证实了在有感染犬的地方，存在接触该寄生虫的猫。有必要实施有效的宣传和预防措施，以控制西班牙猫心丝虫病的发病率和蔓延。
