Zoonotic Diseases caused by your Pet's Worms

A zoonotic disease, loosely defined, is a disease that can be transmitted from
an animal to a human. These diseases can be transmitted by direct contact, by vectors
or by the consumption of animals and/or animal products.

While many animal diseases are zoonotic, we are going to
highlight some of the more common ones caused by worms.

Migrane

A) Hookworm (Ancylostoma caninum)

Zoonotic Diseases caused by your Pet's Worms

These are distributed worldwide and are
found wherever dogs live.

In dogs they can cause anaemia(bloodloss), weight loss, loss of appetite,
poor growth,bloody stools, coughing and localised skin inflammation,
especially of the feet, legs and abdomen.

In humans they are responsible for a condition known as Cutaneous Larval Migrans.
The migration of the larval stages causes localised skin inflammation,
especially in the lower leg region

Preventative measures include:

1) Regular removal of dog faeces from the environment and avoiding contact
with dog faeces and soil contaminated with dog faeces.

2) Disinfection of Kennels etc

3) Regular Deworming (pets and people!)

4) Basic Hygiene - washing hands after playing with dogs, before meals etc.

B) Roundworm (Toxocara canis) are also distributed worldwide.

Usually only dogs up to about 8 months old are infected.
Symptoms include poor growth, weight loss, pot bellied appearance, coughing, occasional
vomiting, slimey diarrhoea with worms sometimes visible.

In humans they are responsible for a condition known as Visceral larval Migrans. The larvae
migrate through the body and the symptoms experienced by the person depend on where the
larvae end up in the body.Common symptoms include a fever, muscle pains, coughing, loss
of appetite, blindness (usually only one eye) etc.

Prevention is the same as for hookworm.

C) Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is one of the best known of the zoonotic diseases that involve pets
and is the disease that leads many pregnant women to (unfairly) toss the pet cat
out the door!

Although cats play a major role in the life cycle of Toxopllasma gondii, the causative organism,
humans can in fact become infected 3 different ways, only one of which is direct contact
with cat faeces.In fact, cat ownership is not a big factor for human infection with Toxoplasma.

The three ways that humans can become infected:

1) Eating undercooked meat

This is THE major route of infection for humans, NOT contact with cat faeces.
In one study , up to 60% of infections were as the result of the consumption of undercooked
meat.

2) Transplacental Infection

The foetus is infected while still in the uterus. This infection is the result
of the mother becoming infected during pregnancy.

3) Ingestion of the organism shed in cat faeces.

Preventative measures thus involve cooking meat properly, wearing gloves when gardening,
washing hands and utensils after working with raw meat and cleaning litter trays out daily.

Zoonotic diseases are a real threat to humans, but in most cases a little common sense and basic
hygiene practices will prevent you becoming infected with any of these diseases.

Zoonotic Diseases caused by your Pet's Worms

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