Transmission and control of Filaroides hirthi lungworm infection in dogs.

Transmission of Filaroides hirthi among cagemate pups was demonstrated to occur through the ingestion of first-stage larvae in recently passed feces. It was suggested that coprophagia is the principal mechanism of transmission of F hirthi and that transmission from brood bitches to their litters occurs by this mechanism during and after the fourth or fifth week of the nursing period. Medication of 15 infected brood bitches with two courses of albendazole at a dosage rate of 50 mg/kg of body weight twice each day for 5 days resulted in complete absence of F hirthi infection among all 21 of their progeny, whereas 16 of 19 progeny (84%) from 14 nontreated infected dams harbored F hirthi worms.